Sakura and the Scottish School of Magic
by Shareon
Summary: After running into problems developing her magical skills on her own, Sakura decides to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for some formal magical studies. A Cardcaptor Sakura continuation set in the Harry Potter universe.
1. 1: Sakura and the Difficult Spell

Summary: After running into problems developing her magical skills on her own, Sakura decides to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for some formal magical studies. A Cardcaptor Sakura continuation set in the Harry Potter universe.

* * *

Chapter 1: Sakura and the Difficult Spell

A distant part of Sakura's mind wondered why she was dressed in a cute brown dress with pink trim. This same part of her mind quickly abandoned the effort, having asked the same question hundreds of times before without finding an answer, and instead focused on a much more pressing issue.

"Do you really need to videotape this, Tomoyo-chan?" Sakura asked. Her embarrassment was obvious from her tone, her posture, and her constant fidgeting.

"This is the first time my dear Sakura-chan is creating her own card. How could I bear to not have it in my collection?" Tomoyo answered, a sparkle in her eye.

The nameless card, while impressive, didn't count in either Sakura's or Tomoyo's opinion. The creation of that card had been entirely unintentional. To this day, Sakura had no idea how she had done it. Its subsequent merging with The Nothing to form The Hope didn't count either, as the result was basically a converted Clow Card like the rest of her 52 card deck.

"Besides, can't you just feel the inspiration of the blooming cherry trees in your dress? With this I'm sure you'll succeed," Tomoyo continued.

"Com'on. Show us the guts of the cards' mistress!" Keroberos joined in encouragement.

Sakura gave one last plaintive cry before pushing her circumstances out of her mind to concentrate. She closed her eyes and tried her best to ignore both of her observers and the distracting video camera filming her every movement. Instead she pictured The Light and The Dark. She pictured The Silent and The Voice. She pictured Syaoran, hundreds of miles away. As she did so she slowly raised the Key above her head.

"Key, grant me a tunnel so that I may hear. Listen!" Sakura chanted.

She slammed the raised Key down through the air, where it stopped as abruptly as if it had hit a wooden table. The star within the Key began to spin as it channeled Sakura's magic through it, and in response the air in front of the Key began to whirl. Faster and faster it spun, creating its own miniature hurricane. Some papers on a nearby desk were quickly drawn into the contained vortex, adding their confusion to the maelstrom.

Slowly the vortex shrank, growing ever faster as it did so. Tomoyo thought she could barely make out a small rectangular slip within it.

Sakura was staring at the same spot as Tomoyo with focused attention. The hope of a card shape slowly grew more and more clear. She was almost certain she could definitely see something when the wind abruptly stopped. All was still for a single long moment before the air in front of her suddenly pulsed outward, scattering the papers everywhere and throwing Sakura backwards through the air.

The next few seconds were spent in agonizing disorientation. Eventually Sakura managed to get enough control over the pain which wracked her body that she felt like she could once again open her eyes. She looked up and saw Keroberos and Tomoyo talking quickly. This was the first indication they had been saying anything though as the entire world had gone silent to her. Not having any idea what they were trying to say to her, she just shook her head, as much to herself as to them.

Leaning heavily on Tomoyo, Sakura slowly managed to drag herself onto her bed. Tomoyo and Keroberos tried to comfort her as she slowly gathered her wits about her. As the minutes dragged on Sakura's inability to hear anything grew more and more worrisome.

After several minutes, which felt more like hours, sound abruptly flooded back to Sakura's ears. The sudden shock of hearing the light hum of the electric lights in the room after the prolonged period of silence caused Sakura to cover her ears in pain and cry out, which in turn only exaggerated the problem.

"Are you alright?" Tomoyo cautiously asked.

"I'm alright," Sakura automatically, albeit unconvincing, replied. "But why can't I make this card?"

"Even Clow took years before he starting making the Clow Cards, and you're much younger than he was. I'm sure you'll get it eventually," Keroberos said.

"But I made that nameless card before. This must have been the fiftieth time I've tried, and I still can't do it. Why doesn't it work?" Sakura asked, on the verge of tears.

"Maybe you should try talking to Syaoran-kun. He knows a lot about magic. Maybe he could help," Tomoyo said. If nothing else, speaking with Syaoran would cheer Sakura up as well, and Sakura definitely looked like she could do with some cheering up.

Keroberos scoffed before saying, "That kid? Sakura's way better at magic than he'll ever be. Besides, the Li family is firmly focused on the ways of Eastern magic. He's got as much chance of helping Sakura as..."

Keroberos's protests trailed off, quashed by the bright and eager face Sakura now had at the prospects of both getting to talk to Syaoran as well as getting past her roadblock all at the same time. Tomoyo's suggestion had succeeded in instantly driving away Sakura's sour mood.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try," Keroberos finally conceded.

"Do you mind if we go to your house to call, Tomoyo-chan?" Sakura asked Tomoyo. A conversation about magic was much less likely to be overheard at Tomoyo's much larger home than at Sakura's own.

"Of course. Anything for my dear Sakura-chan," Tomoyo replied, just as bright as before this most recent failure.

"Thanks," Sakura said. She changed into some far less conspicuous clothing with the speed gained from months of practice, placed Keroberos as well as the book containing the Sakura Cards into a backpack, restored the now shrunken Key to its usual place around her neck, and hurried out of her room.

"We're going to Tomoyo-chan's house," Sakura quickly announced to Toya before she was out the door. Tomoyo was right behind her, albeit in much less of a hurry.

Meanwhile, the manhandled Keroberos just shook his head, unseen in the backpack.

* * *

Once her conversation with Syaoran had started, Sakura was amazed at how much they had to talk about. School, friends, and family, not to mention how much they loved and missed each other, covered more than the first hour on the phone.

Tomoyo seemed immune to the passage of time as Sakura and her boyfriend talked and talked. She instead basked in Sakura's delight, her own face mirroring Sakura's expression of happiness. Keroberos, on the other hand, seemed to be painfully aware of the passage of each second. It was obvious how relieved he was when the conversation finally turned to magic.

"So Tomoyo-chan thought that I should call you," Sakura said, concluding her summary of her most recent attempt at making The Listen.

There was a noticeable pause, punctuated only by the static of the transoceanic phone line. Eventually Syaoran said, "I hate to tell you, but I don't think I can really help."

There was another noticeable pause, again filled only with the static of the line. Sakura broke it this time. "But Kero-chan said the Li family was famous for magic. Isn't there anything you can do to help?"

"None of my studies have been about magical artifacts. In fact the only person I've seen making a magical item was Grandpa, back when he made my sword," Syaoran said.

"But surely there is something you can think of," Sakura said.

"It won't do any good," Keroberos said, guessing what was being said despite only having heard Sakura's half of the conversation. "The Li family has strong practitioners of magic, but they only know Eastern magic. They won't be able to help."

"What does that mean, Kero-chan?" Tomoyo asked.

"Eastern magic focuses on magical manipulation. I've yet to see a single one of the Li family who didn't scorn magical items. About the most advanced artifact I've seen one of them make was that kid's sword. Even that Lasin board of his was handed down from Clow," Keroberos said.

Sakura didn't pay attention to what Keroberos was saying, instead focusing on Syaoran as he said, "Why don't you ask Hiiragizawa for some help? He's the one who made the original cards after all."

Sakura's crestfallen face quickly brightened at the idea, then darkened as she remembered she never got Eriol's phone number, then brightened again as she remembered that she knew Kaho's and therefore Eriol's address.

"That's a really good idea, Syaoran-kun. I knew I could count on you," Sakura said happily.

"O..of course," Syaoran replied. Sakura could almost feel his blush coming from across the phone lines.

"Be sure to say tell Mei-ling-chan I said hello," Sakura said.

"I will. She'll be sorry she missed your call," Syaoran said.

"Be sure to keep practicing your magic too. I can't wait to see you again," Sakura said.

"You too," Syaoran said.

"Bye bye," Sakura said.

"Until next time," Syaoran said.

Sakura finally put down the now very hot handset from her equally hot ear and fell back into her chair with a contented sigh. She was disappointed with not being able to learn more but at least she had a new idea about what to do next. That would have to wait until later, though.

"Thank you so much, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura said.

"Of course, Sakura-chan. Anything for you," Tomoyo answered.

"Do you want to go get some ice cream?" Sakura asked.

"That's a wonderful idea," Tomoyo emphatically agreed. She was happy to do anything, as long as it was with Sakura.

Keroberos gave an inarticulate groan at this idea. He never liked being forced to watch Sakura and Tomoyo eat ice cream without getting any for himself, and if they were in a public ice cream parlor, the chances of him being able to sneak in a few bites while nobody else was watching was slim at best.

* * *

It had been about a month since Sakura had sent her letter to Eriol and Kaho and she was eager to hear the response. Each day brought new hope that she would get a letter, or even better a phone call, from the two of them. Each day she quickly hurried home after cheerleading club.

Each day she was left disappointed when there was no letter addressed to her.

Her heart raced every time the phone rang, and each time the call turned out to be as mundane as if magic never existed in the world.

If her father or Toya noticed anything about her behavior, neither said a word.

Sakura was impatient, but didn't lose hope. If there was one thing she had learned throughout her adventures with the Clow Cards, and then later with her adventures against Eriol, it was to never give up hope. Indeed she had created, or more accurately modified, a card to represent this exact feeling within her. So when the phone rang, Sakura eagerly ran to get it despite the dozens of disappointments she had had over the past few weeks.

"Hello?" Sakura said.

"Good evening, Sakura-chan," Kaho's voice on the other end of the line said in the same flawless Japanese she used when she had been Sakura's teacher.

"Mizuki-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed. It was only after she had said it that she realized how loudly that had come out. Sakura looked around to see if anybody had noticed.

Toya continued to talk to Yukito at the dinner table, and her father was still cleaning the plates in the kitchen, despite the fact that Sakura had stopped drying them to answer the phone.

In a more normal voice Sakura said, "Good evening... umm... did you get my letter?"

"Yes, we did. That's why I called you," Kaho's gentle voice said.

"So then... Ahh... What do you think I'm doing wrong?" Sakura askd. She braced herself for the revelation which would make everything make sense.

"We have a few ideas what it might be, but to tell you the truth, there really isn't any good way to describe them over the phone. Even if we could, it probably wouldn't do very much good. You'd just have more problems right after you got past your current issue," Kaho said.

"Hoe..." Sakura dejected reply came out.

"Don't worry. We have an idea," Kaho said.

"What's that?" Sakura asked, hope once again blossoming within her.

"How would you like to come to the United Kingdom to go to a magic school?" Kaho asked.

"Hoe?" Sakura asked.

"There's a very famous school here called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Many of the best witches in the world graduated from it. I'm sure if you came you would learn a great deal to help you with your magic," Kaho explained.

Sakura's mind stopped as suddenly as if it had been traveling at highway speeds before hitting a brick wall. She had, of course, heard of studying abroad, but that was usually for people in high school or university.

"Out in the United Kingdom? That far? Aren't there any schools in Japan I could go to?" Sakura asked.

"It's true there are many prestigious magical schools in the East, especially in China. However if you are trying to create new cards, you will really need to attend a school in the West. Hogwarts is one of the best schools out here, and I teach there too, so I can help smooth things over if you decide come," Kaho said.

"But what about my father? And my brother? And Tomoyo-chan? And everybody?" Sakura asked.

"Eriol and I can explain things to your family, and you can still go home to visit your friends and family over the winter," Kaho said.

Sakura was silent while she thought. She was torn about what she should do. She never imagined that her small experiments with magic might lead to her leaving Japan to study abroad. The thought left her completely overwhelmed.

"Do you think I should go?" Sakura eventually asked.

There was a long pause before Kaho finally said, "Yes, I think you should. It'll be very hard, and it won't all be happy, but I think it would be a very good for you."

There was another pregnant pause as Sakura thought more about this life-changing decision. Finally, with more conviction than she really felt, Sakura said, "Okay. I'll go. What do I need to do?"

"Well, the first step is easy for you. Is your father around?" Kaho asked.

"Yes," Sakura said

"Can you put him on the phone so we can arrange things?" Kaho asked.

"Okay. One second," Sakura said.

Sakura put the phone down and walked back to the kitchen. Her father had just finished cleaning the last of the dishes, and they stood stacked on the side of the sink, waiting to be dried.

"Dad? Do you remember Mizuki-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"She was your teacher from a few months ago, wasn't she?" Fujitaka asked.

"Yes. She's on the phone, and she wants to talk to you," Sakura rushed out, completely avoiding the heart of the matter.

"She does? That's strange. Okay. Do you think you can dry these dishes while I talk with her?" Fujitaka asked.

"Sure," Sakura said, accompanied with an emphatic nod of her head.

Sakura climbed back onto the stool she had dismounted earlier when she had rushed to get the phone and started drying the dishes with a towel. She dried them absentmindedly, her attention instead focused on listening to the half of the telephone conversation she could hear.

"This is Fujitaka. Can I help you?" Fujitaka said in to the phone.

"Of course, you were Sakura-san's math teacher for a while a few months ago."

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Okay," Fujitaka said again while frowning slightly, worrying Sakura.

"Yes, that's true."

"Somewhat. I think I may have some idea," Fujitaka said. He turned to look at Sakura, who quickly turned away and made a show of concentrating on the dishes.

"The United Kingdom? Are you serious?" Fujitaka asked, surprisingly calmly.

"I see."

"That's true."

"And how would this work?"

"I see. I hope you don't mind if I talk to Sakura-san before I agree to anything."

"One second. Let me find a pen."

"Okay... Okay... Okay... Got it. I'll talk to you tomorrow around this time then."

"Until then."

Sakura's father gently put the handset back in its cradle and turned back to the kitchen. Sakura had gone back to eavesdropping and had been absently drying the same plate for the past few minutes. With a start, she quickly moved it to the stack of dry dishes and grabbed the next plate.

"So you want to go study in the United Kingdom?" Fujitaka asked Sakura.

"Yes," Sakura replied, still with more conviction than she actually felt.

"Are you sure? You're still young, and it's a long ways from home. They don't even speak Japanese there. You'll need to learn a lot of English," Fujitaka said.

This threw Sakura for a bit. She thought about it, then again said, "Yes."

"You're going to have to say goodbye to all your friends too," Fujitaka said.

"I know. I still want to go," Sakura repeated.

"Why do you want to go?" Fujitaka asked.

Sakura hesitated, unsure how much to say, before lowering her head and answering, "There are lots of things I want to learn about, and Mizuki-sensei thought that going to the United Kingdom would be the best way to learn them."

"There's no other, special reason you want to go?" Fujitaka asked in a way that could have been interrogatory except for his expression and tone.

"No," Sakura said in a small voice.

"And you're sure you want to go?" Fujitaka asked.

Sakura's face turned back to her father's. Their eyes met, and she simply said, "Yes."

Fujitaka thought about it for a few more seconds, and then said, "Okay. I'll talk to Mizuki-san and Hiiragizawa-san tomorrow and try to arrange things."

"Hoe?" Sakura asked.

"You're old enough to know what you're doing, Sakura-san, and I believe in you." Fujitaka said.

"Thank you, dad," Sakura said, accompanied with a simple but loving hug.

* * *

The next few days passed with such normalcy that it ironically felt abnormal to Sakura. She felt like the world should be different with this monumental decision made, yet life went on like it hadn't even noticed that everything had changed.

Tomoyo was the first non-family member Sakura told the news to the following morning. She took it very poorly. After the initial shock and disbelief when Sakura told her she was planning on going to the United Kingdom, Tomoyo tried to put on a brave face. However, despite her best efforts, it was obvious to Sakura that Tomoyo wanted to cry. Not even the time she lost her beautiful singing voice had Sakura seen Tomoyo this sad. This, more than anything else, made Sakura second guess her decision.

Most of Sakura's other friends took the news much better. They were all visibly surprised, but each was supportive and excited for her. For the elementary school students, even a trip to Osaka was a big deal. A trip to the United Kingdom made for a full-blown adventure, complete with magical swords and dragons keeping handsome princes in captivity who could only be saved by stealing their hats, at least if Takashi was to be believed. Sakura caught more than one look of envy thrown her way throughout the day.

However, the trip was still several months away, and Sakura was amazed how quickly everything returned to the normal routine as if that fateful phone call had never been made. There were classes in the morning, cheerleading club in the afternoon, food, studying, chores, and everything else which comprised her normal daily routine prior to her decision to go abroad.

The only change in her new routine as compared to her old one was that her studying now included daily practice of English with Tomoyo and a private tutor. When Sonomi had learned that Sakura was going to be exiled to the United Kingdom in a few months, she swore there was no way she was going to allow her sweet Nadesico's daughter thrown to the wolves unprepared, and had arranged for daily private lessons for Sakura. Tomoyo, happy to spend more time with Sakura no matter what the reason, had eagerly joined in the lessons as well and the two of them spent hours each day practicing English.

Sakura quickly learned to hate pronouns, particles, tenses, and especially the letter "r." Or was that "l?" She never could tell. The one thing she was thankful for was that this studying did not involve any embarrassing special Tomoyo outfits. The fact she wasn't risking long-term disability on secret night adventures was nice as well.

The days slowly passed by one by one, but somehow the weeks flew by. Each time Sakura checked a calendar "The Day" loomed nearer and nearer. Soon it was time for the final exams in her classes, and then goodbyes to all her classmates she wasn't going to see during the summer holiday.

The summer holiday brought a new found distaste of all things foreign to Sakura. With no school to prevent it, Sakura had found herself studying even more English. At least her practice now was much more exciting, with the tutor encouraging frequent trips to the aquarium or water park. This was supposedly to "practice the language in a natural environment," although it seemed like the tutor spent more time by the pool than actually talking with Sakura and Tomoyo.

Finally, "The Day" arrived. The previous night Sakura, with the help of her father, had packed her suitcase and her backpack. After they had finished, Sakura snuck the book which contained all the Sakura Cards in it into her backpack as well, causing an unsightly bulge on the corner where it had been wedged in.

Sakura's family, along with Yukito, got into a Daidouji family limousine first thing in the morning. Tomoyo wouldn't allow Sakura to leave the country without being able to say goodbye properly, and Sonomi was just as eager as her daughter to see her cousin's daughter off, which ensured that the limousine was packed full of people at the early hour for the trip.

At the airport, the lines for the international check-ins were extremely long. The Kinomoto family and companions found themselves waiting in line for hours before finally being able to reach an agent. Sakura and Tomoyo had so much to talk about in preparation for the coming four month absence that time flew by. If anything, it felt too short.

Toya and Yukito were much quieter during this time. Yukito added an occasional comment to the running conversation, but Toya kept his head held high, barely even looking at Sakura. Yukito could tell that Toya missed his sister already.

When they reached the counter, the attendant was surprised at how large an entourage had gathered just to see a single girl off. He was also surprised at the age of the passenger. He would never want his 14 year old son to travel by himself across the world, and his son was older, a boy, and intimately acquainted with how the airline industry worked.

The attendant then made the understandable mistake on complementing the "mother" and "father" of this young girl on her bravery. The "mother's" face flushed quickly with a blush of embarrassment before turning a darker red in anger. The next minute he had to endure her yelling and ranting that she was not, never had been, and never would consider marrying the "man" standing next to her, and how could he possibly have made such a mistake. Somehow, she managed to even make the word "man" seem insulting.

The attendant was thoroughly embarrassed and confused, but his training quickly kicked in and he peaceably agreed with everything she said, apologizing profusely for his mistake. Once the definitely-not-mother had been mollified, he handed the ticket to Sakura and directed the party to the proper terminal of the airport. After they were safely out of sight, he breathed a sigh of relief and called for the next person in line.

The final two hour wait at the terminal was one of the shortest Sakura ever had to experience. Sakura and Tomoyo's talk was very mundane. Indeed it might have been just another Sunday afternoon together, except that beneath it all there was an unacknowledged, even unrealized desperation of wanting to stay together which underlay the entire conversation.

Sakura promised to let Tomoyo know all about all of the exciting things she was going to see. Tomoyo promised to call every day and let Sakura know everything that happened back in Japan. Given Tomoyo, this was a non-idle promise too.

Too soon, the final boarding call was made, and Sakura had to give her final goodbyes to everybody. There was a one last round of goodbye hugs with everybody, except for Toya who instead got a foot stomp for an off-hand remark about crashing the plane. One last tearful goodbye saw her away to the ramp and then on to the plane.

The flight instructions were spoken twice, once in Japanese followed by once in English. Sakura found that she knew enough to understand the English instructions and could match the words to the previously spoken Japanese.

The flight was mostly uneventful, except for a few bumps which felt more like riding a roller coaster than a smooth trip through the air to Europe. Eventually, the plane came to a jarring landing on the ground. It was far harsher than any landing Sakura ever made when she flew personally, and there was a ferocious whirling sound as the plane desperately tried to come to a stop. The final taxi to the terminal was almost anti-climactic to Sakura. Looking out the window showed the same pavement, plain buildings, and airplanes she had left 15 hours earlier in Japan. Sakura found it hard to convince herself she was actually in a different country.

The plane arrived at the terminal, and Sakura repacked the things she had taken out of her backpack in flight, patiently waited for her turn to exit the plane. Once the rows in front of her had exited, she clutched her immigration papers to herself protectively and cautiously walked out the door.

* * *

Last Updated: May 1, 2013


	2. 2: Sakura and the Rustic English Manor

Chapter 2: Sakura and the Rustic English Manor

Sakura entered the large terminal and was suddenly struck with the feeling of awe and surprise she had been expecting during the landing of the plane. All of the sounds, colors, and smells served as dramatic indications that she was now somewhere completely new. Even the feel of the air was different than Narita International Airport.

The most obvious change was that everything around her was all written in English. Sakura found it very amusing to puzzle out the words on the "Departure" and "Arrival" signs.

Her gawking was interrupted when a young woman in uniform came up to her and asked in English, "Excuse me, are you Sakura?"

Sakura paused as she carefully turned the words over in her head. After a few seconds she ventured a careful, "W..what?"

"Are you Sakura Kinomoto?" the woman repeated, slower this time.

Sakura thought a bit more then responded with an emphatic, "Hai! Eto... yes."

"Hello. I'm Ms. Bentha. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to the immigration desk," the lady said slowly.

Sakura didn't completely understand what the woman had said but had gotten the basic idea and followed Ms. Bentha. While she was being escorted through the airport, Sakura kept looking around for any sign of written hiragana, katakana, or kanji. Narita International Airport had been full of signs in both Japanese and English so she had assumed that this airport would have instructions in Japanese as well. She was wrong.

Letting out a sigh of remorse, Sakura continued her trek through the wide corridors of the airport beside her escort. Superficially, everything seemed very similar to the airport she had left behind in Japan. However, in addition to the missing language, there were many other subtle differences that made everything in this airport seem as different from Narita International Airport as her school looked between the day and the night.

Customs went through without a hitch. Keroberos hadn't been discovered, and Ms. Bentha had been very patient in helping Sakura with the forms and procedures necessary to officially enter the country.

Once past customs, Sakura felt a familiar presence. Two presences actually, one as intimate to her as her own hair, and the other like a friend who would never be forgotten. She looked up, saw a woman long red hair atop a tall graceful figure, and immediately recognized Kaho. To Kaho's side stood the much shorter but equally welcome sight of Eriol.

"Mizuki-sensei! Eriol-kun!" Sakura exclaimed while waving wildly.

Eriol and Kaho waved back in a much more subdued way.

"So I take it these are the people here to pick you up then?" Ms. Bentha asked.

"Yes. Friends," Sakura said.

"Okay," Ms. Bentha said, escorting Sakura to the pair.

They exchanged pleasantries before Ms. Bentha excused herself and turned back to the airport gates. As she walked away, she heard the rapid speech and increased volume which always accompanied reunions, no matter what language was being spoken.

* * *

Sakura, Eriol, and Kaho had a great deal to catch up with despite having last seen each other only a few months ago. They talked about several mundane but important topics, such as how classes were going, how Sakura's relationship with Syaoran was developing, and how Tomoyo was doing.

Once the group had reached the safety of Kaho's car, the three of them were joined by a newly liberated Keroberos. At that point, the conversation turned to much more exotic topics than the latest developments at Sakura's school. The discussion continued instead with subjects such as Sakura's experiments with magic, Eriol's magical research, Kaho's stories about how wizards and witches understood so little about muggles and their non-magical world, and Keroberos's apparently bottomless stomach.

The long drive from the airport to Reed Manor gave them a considerable amount of time to talk. Even so, Sakura felt like she had only barely scratched the surface of things she wanted to discuss when they pulled up to the largest house Sakura had ever seen.

The sight of Reed manor was so impressive that Sakura couldn't help but whisper a quiet exclamation of awe at its sight, which caused Eriol and Kaho to both give a smile at Sakura's reaction..

After Kaho parked the car, she and Eriol led Sakura and Keroberos into the manor. They then proceeded to give a grand tour of the building, starting with the first floor and its kitchen, dining room, arboretum, library, study, and various other rooms. The tour was given in English, continuing the English practice which they had started for Sakura on the drive from the airport to the manor.

Halfway through the first floor, Eriol was interrupted by a loud cry of, "Sakura-chan!"

This was followed shortly by a huge hug from Ruby to the little girl. Ruby quickly said in Japanese, "I'm so happy you're here! I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Hoe? Hello Ruby-san. How are you doing?" Sakura hesitantly replied, answering Ruby's Japanese with the same language.

"It's been so lonely without you and Toya-kun, or even that vile Yue. Of course Kaho-san and Eriol-san are around so it isn't that bad, but we had so much fun back in Japan, although I'm sad I never did get close to Toya-kun. At least you're all happy though. You are all happy right? Is everything going well back in Japan? How are all your friends and family? Is Toya-kun and Yue and everybody else well?" Ruby gushed out.

As Sakura took a moment to digest Ruby's onslaught of words, Eriol jumped in. In English he said, "Ruby, Sakura is trying to practice her English before she gets to Hogwarts. You should speak in English and help her out when you can as well."

"Okay," Ruby said, then turning to Sakura she asked in much slower English, "How are you, and Toya, and everybody else?"

Sakura actually found this question much easier to understand than the flood of words Ruby had said in Sakura's native tongue. After briefly catching Ruby up with some of Sakura's bigger highlights, the tour continued on to the main stairway. There it was once again interrupted. This time, rather than Ruby's shout halting Eriol in mid-sentence, Kaho description of the area was instead interrupted by Keroberos's loud cry of, "Suppi!"

Eriol didn't pay too much attention to Keroberos, despite the fact that he had flown straight up towards Eriol's private laboratory. He had done enough work with Keroberos in the past as Clow that he knew that Keroberos knew his way around magical paraphernalia. Spinel would also be able to keep Keroberos in check if it came down to it. That was unless Spinel got some candy. Or takoyaki. Or really any snack food.

Once again a group of four, they continued on to the second floor. There, Kaho showed off a grandiose study before cutting the tour a bit short when they reached a bedroom at the end of a hallway. She said, "And this will be your room, Sakura."

Sakura walked into the room and was instantly charmed with the place. A giant four poster bed with a puffy red comforter dominated the room. Surrounding the bed was a set of matching red drapes, currently roped open. There was also a large dark wooden dresser as well as a matching vanity complete with mirror and plush cushioned chair on the side of the room. The walls were a nice shade of lavender, which matched the painting of a blooming cherry tree hanging on the other side of the room. The room's window overlooked a grand forest, with a lake just visible past the woods in the distance.

Even more so than when she had first entered the manor, Sakura felt like she had stepped back in time 200 years into the wealthy manor of an English aristocrat. If her friends back in Japan had any idea how close their speculations of the United Kingdom had been to the truth, they would have been be amazed. All that was left to do was to find a dragon keeping a handsome prince captive. Sakura made a mental note to herself to be sure to mention everything in the letters she was going to write to her friends and family back home.

Eriol and Kaho left Sakura to unpack and settle in while they went to prepare a late lunch for her as well as themselves.

Sakura diligently opened her suitcase to begin the process of moving her clothing into the drawers of the dresser. Her eyes then caught sight of the bed again. It looked so soft and inviting. She just had to try it out to see how it felt.

She climbed into the bad, not even bothering to move the comforter or the sheets. She lay on top of it all, luxuriating in the feel of the plush bed and downy pillows. They were every bit as comfortable as they looked.

Sakura didn't even realize when her travel-weary eyes closed.

* * *

Sakura woke up to the smell of breakfast. It was a marvelous breakfast, if her nose was to be believed. She felt much better than she had 16 hours of succulent sleep ago. Or was that an eternity ago? Her empty stomach made her inclined to think the latter.

She stretched her arms above her head, sat in bed for another second, pulled the sheets off from over her legs, and then leaped to the floor. She gave another mighty stretch, and almost tripped over her suitcase which was still lying open on the ground.

A quick check at herself showed that she was still wearing the dress from the day before, and it was hideously wrinkled. It looked, appropriately enough, like somebody had slept in them. She would need to change.

As she selected what day clothing she would wear today she resolved to finish unpacking immediately after breakfast.

After a quick change of clothing and brushing her mussed up hair to a more presentable shape, Sakura ventured out into the hallway. Turning to her left, she walked to the stairway. As she made her way down the steps, she could hear the sound of frying oil coming from the nearby kitchen.

"Good morning, Sakura. Did you sleep well?" Kaho asked. She had an apron with a cat motif on and was deftly flipping some kind of beige food in a decently sized frying pan.

"Good morning, Professor Mizuki. I did," Sakura replied brightly.

Sakura was well rested, in a place her friends could only dream about, and had the prospects of a gourmet meal in front of her. All was right with the world, or at least it would have been if only they didn't have to use such an annoying language.

"It's going to be a while longer before breakfast is ready," Kaho said over the pan of frying potatoes.

"So maybe you'd like to continue your tour of the rest of the house before we eat?" Eriol continued after Kaho without dropping a beat.

"Yes," Sakura said, with an emphatic nod of her head.

Eriol led Sakura to the second floor and continued the tour which had ended early the day before. The most notable things on that floor, besides the bedrooms, were the second and third libraries of the manor. These contained sorcery and artificer magical references respectively.

While they walked, Eriol also gave a quick explanation of the history and importance of a few of the more prominent books in these libraries, such as Merlin's "Second Journal of Meta-Magic" and Owle Bullock's "Secrets of the Darkest Art". Sakura wasn't familiar enough with the world of magic to understand the importance of those books, but figured if some ministry thought that they were important enough to include on some list somewhere then they must be very significant books indeed.

When Eriol had finished showing Sakura around the second floor, including another spacious study and a lovely art room, they started to head back to the first floor. On the way, Eriol told Sakura, "On the third floor is my laboratory. It has a lot of dangerous things in it so you should never go up there."

"Okay," Sakura agreed without hesitation.

They reached the bottom of the stairs right as Kaho was putting the finishing touches on breakfast. She looked up and greeted their arrival before putting her apron away and returning to the dining room to join them.

Throughout the meal, despite her apparent age, Ruby acted more like an immature younger sister to Sakura and kept fawning over her. Keroberos for his part concentrated on devouring everything in sight as if he were desperately hungry. Spinel in turn treated her counterpart and his lack of manners with a cold disregard while eating in a measured and dignified pace herself. The humans simply ate normally while talking about nothing in particular. The conversation was punctuated occasionally by minor corrections and suggestions from Kaho and Eriol about ways Sakura could improve her English grammar and phraseology.

In short, except for a couple of minor language problems, the same scene could have played out in countless other households all across the country. However, this normalcy was to swiftly come to an end, once breakfast was finished.

"You told us about your attempts at making a Sakura Card. Can you show me what you did?" Eriol asked.

"Okay," Sakura said. She then pulled the Key away from her neck and chanted in Japanese, "Key which hides the powers of stars, show your true power before me. Under the contract, Sakura commands you. Release!"

Eriol gave no reaction to the actions before him as the magical currents Sakura evoked swam around her like so many hungry fish before attacking the only porous object near her: the Key. As they flow into it, the Key grew more and more powerful until it reached the threshold needed and expanded from its small charm-sized shape.

After taking a moment to gather her wits, Sakura began the same ceremony which she had tried numerous times before in Japan. This time as she chanted, unlike when Sakura had summoned the Key, Eriol's eyes widened fractionally. The behavior of the currents of mana had changed, now bringing to mind the imagery of moths rather than the fish from before. More surprising than the change of behavior the currents magic exhibited, though, was the change in the amount of power Sakura wielded. Her power had continued to grow and now surpassed even the considerable strength she had demonstrated when she had faced off against Eriol all those months ago.

This power and potential Sakura possessed had been the cause of a substantial discussion between Eriol and Kaho back when they had first received the letter from Sakura explaining her problems. Theoretically, Sakura could be greatly assisted in her development if she were surrounded by several other children learning magic as well. However, in practice this presented quite a problem. Any such school in the East, even a prestigious academy like New Xi'an Sanctuary, would be focused on Eastern magic, and thus be wholly inadequate and possibly even detrimental to Sakura's goals of trying to add to her collection of Sakura Cards. A school in the West wouldn't carry that particular problem, but could be even worse, possibly severely limiting Sakura's long-term development as a byproduct of their limited Western curriculum and how obsessed with old traditional magic they were. As a result, Eriol had originally thought it best to leave Sakura to figure out her magic on her own.

Ultimately, though, Kaho's assurances had been enough to convince Eriol to support her in suggesting to Sakura that she attend Hogwarts. Clow himself had had several negative experiences with that school in the past, having watched it ruin countless promising young wizards and witches with rout gesticulations and memorized formula. However, Kaho had been insistent that the school had changed since that time. Eriol would never have been convinced of this except for the fact Professor Dumbledore was now the headmaster of the school, which was something Clow couldn't have imagined back when he had been there.

Hopefully they actually had in fact changed. With the power that she wielded, Sakura was sure to change the world, so long as the world didn't change her first.

The moth-like currents were now coalescing to a single point in front of Sakura. It was as if she had lit a metaphysical candle and the equally metaphysical moths were being slowly and unpredictably drawn towards it. They drew closer and closer until they hit some invisible threshold at which point they quickly vanished, the flame of mana in the center growing ever so slightly each time.

"That's enough, Sakura," Eriol said, interrupting her before she had gathered enough power to create an unchecked and uncontrolled spontaneous mana flare.

"Hoe?" Sakura asked startled. However, Eriol's goal had been achieved. Sakura concentration had been broken, and the gathered power was released in a quick flash of light that left spots in both her and Eriol's eyes but nothing more serious than that.

"That was very good Sakura," Eriol said. While he spoke, he created a large ball of mana to the side of his head and watched Sakura for a reaction. She didn't visibly react in any way to it.

Eriol thought a bit more, and then said, "Why don't we start with some basic exercises. Can you try doing this?"

He held out his hands, and waited for Sakura to do the same. Eriol then carefully demonstrated what he wanted her to do, paying particular attention to emphasize the parts which the Western world tended to neglect or outright dismiss.

* * *

The following days quickly fell into a pattern. In the morning, Sakura would wake up and have breakfast. Then, depending on the day, she would spend a few hours either practicing magic with Eriol or talking about the magical community in general and Hogwarts in particular with Kaho. After that came lunch, which was a magnificent feast prepared by whomever she hadn't spent the morning with. Next she would usually spend the afternoon with Ruby undertaking some expedition in the grounds surrounding the manor, such as spelunking in a nearby cave or visiting the various creatures in the neighboring forest. This would lead to dinner, which would be an even more elaborate feast than lunch. The evening would either find the group talking or playing some game. Throughout this, Sakura's English constantly improved and corrections became an infrequent occurrence.

Sakura was having the time of her life. While she hadn't seen any of the dragons Yamazaki had told her about, thankfully, she did see new things every day. The amount of nature which surrounded her outstripped even that vacation her family had taken with Yukito to the countryside when she had met that nice old man. Sakura found herself enjoying the flowers, fields, and animals around her.

After about three weeks of this pattern, Eriol brought up a new subject during their morning practice session. He said, "It's getting close to September and classes will be starting before you know it. We'll need to get your school supplies soon, Sakura."

"Hoe?" Sakura asked.

"You'll need a cauldron, a telescope, a wand, some textbooks, and a few other things," Eriol said, counting off on his fingers as he named the list. "Not to mention a school uniform. Kaho has a copy of the exact list of things you'll need."

"I'll need a uniform?" Sakura asked. She had assumed that a school in the United Kingdom, especially a magic school, would be different than back home somehow.

"Yes, you do," Eriol said.

A frown came to Sakura's face. She only had the bit of pocket money her father had given her before the trip, and even that was still in yen. Worry colored her voice as she said, "I don't have enough money for all that. I can try to make some clothing with The Create, I think, but I don't know about the books."

"Don't worry. Kaho and I will take care of everything. In fact, we have most of the items and even some of the textbooks already. Things like cauldrons and scales are common enough, and we have plenty of extras," Eriol said. "The only things we really need to go out and buy are some uniforms for you, and probably a couple books we're missing. There's something else I had in mind for your wand."

"Okay," Sakura said. She then thought about what Eriol had said and realized he had mentioned something about how he had something special in mind for her wind. As she already had a wand, Sakura wasn't sure what he was referring to. However, by the time she realized the misunderstanding Eriol had already moved on.

"In any case, that can wait for later. In the mean time, let's try something different today. I'm actually a bit hungry. Can you try to make an apple for me?" Eriol asked nonchalantly.

"Hoe? If you are hungry, we can go to the kitchen," Sakura suggested.

"Yes, we could, but I want you to try to make something for me using your magic. It could be any food, really, but let's keep it simple and stick with an apple," Eriol said. He had the genial yet inscrutable look he wore so often on his face.

"I left the Sakura Cards in my room," Sakura said.

"No, not with The Create. I meant to just create it by yourself," Eriol explained

This was different. Thus far Sakura had spent most of the time parroting Eriol's exercises without really understanding what she was doing, but her faith in Eriol kept her from asking too many questions. While she still didn't understand what Eriol was trying to accomplish with this latest exercise, she was happy to have a change of pace to something more concrete and understandable.

"Okay, I'll try," Sakura agreed.

Sakura readied the Key and concentrated. She thought about The Create and began to chant.

The magical currents gathered around Sakura as she prepared to do what Eriol had asked of her. It never occurred to her that what he had asked her to do violated one of the Principle Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, and thus was considered impossible by the wizards and witches of the Western world. Nor did it occur to her that if she succeeded, she would have demonstrated that she already knew more about elemental manipulation than many of her would-be teachers. Sakura's credulity for what magic could accomplish was ironically one of her greatest strengths in using it.

The mana accumulated in front of Sakura, coagulating in a shape roughly similar to The Create. It quickly approached the critical point where it would flare out, breaking Sakura's construct with an explosion of unpredictable force and manifestation. At this point Eriol was about to call out for her to stop when he noticed the collection of energy in front of her wasn't wavering like he expected it to. Even as the sparks of mana surrounding her were drawn into the point, but the stability of the shape didn't change in any substantial way.

Suddenly the mana burst outward, but not in the uncontrolled fashion of a flare, but instead as if it were plastic being injected into a mold. Before Eriol's and Sakura's eyes a red blob appeared. It could have been an apple except for the fact it more resembled a potato covered with numerous eyes than a round piece of fruit. However, much more important than its shape it existed.

The fruit, or whatever it was, hovered in the air for a several seconds, just long enough for Sakura and Eriol to both make sure Sakura had actually succeeded in creating something. It then disappeared into silent oblivion as quickly as it had appeared in the first place. Sakura collapsed to her hands and knees, breathing heavily.

"That was very good, Sakura," Eriol said after a brief pause. "You're probably tired. That's because you used up a lot of magic in that summoning. Why don't you go lay down and we can pick up your training again tomorrow."

Sakura nodded. She felt similar to how she had felt after both Yue's trial and Eriol's final confrontation. With more effort than it should have taken she slowly climbed to her feet and walked back to her room, leaving Eriol standing behind with a deep thoughtful expression on his face.

* * *

That afternoon, Kaho proposed they go to the nearby town for that purpose of purchasing the supplies that Eriol had mentioned earlier in the day during the practice session. With no objections from anybody, the group took the 45 minute drive for a bout of shopping.

The town was small, with only a few thousand people living in it. To Sakura, accustomed to the bustle of Tokyo, this rustic town underscored the feeling of living in an entirely new and different world even more than her living in the manor she currently called home did. Somehow, the barest hint of city life made made the busyness of Tokyo seem even further away than the wide expanses of empty fields around Reed Manor.

The group's first stop was to a bookstore with an unassuming sign of "Bookstore" hanging in front. As the group entered there was a metallic clank from a bell hanging on the door frame. The shopkeeper looked up at the noise and gave a warm welcome to the group.

"Ah, Kaho. And Eriol and Ruby too. A pleasure to see you all again. How are you doing today? Oh, and somebody new? And just who might you be?" the shopkeeper asked.

"I'm Sakura. It's a pleasure to meet you," Sakura said.

"And it's a pleasure to meet you too. So what can I do for you today?" the shopkeeper asked.

"We're just here to help Sakura buy some school books," Kaho said, giving an almost imperceptible emphasis on the word "school."

"I see," the shopkeeper answered. He then leaned over the counter and squinted at Sakura. Sakura gave a hesitant smile and a small wave back.

"It's getting to be that time of the year again, isn't it? So who is this sweetie? She doesn't look like your daughter," the shopkeeper said. He put an equally subtle emphasis on the word "look."

"No, she isn't. Sakura was one of my students when I was teaching in Japan. She is trying to broaden her horizons," Kaho said.

"I see. I see. Well, the section you'll be wanting to visit is in the basement on the left, next to the special interest section. I'm sure you'll be able to find it," the shopkeeper said.

"Thanks, Hank," Kaho said.

Kaho led the group to a staircase on the left side of the room and down to the basement. Upon reaching a bookcase labeled "Special Interest", and after making sure nobody was watching, she pantomimed as if she were pulling an invisible lever. This caused the bookcase to swing open like an over-sized door.

With the bookcase open, Sakura realized she was feeling a niggling something in the back corner of her mind. She was hard pressed to say what it was, or even when the feeling had started. It had crept up on her as subtly as the piped music of a store did when walking down the street. Much like opening the door to said store would abruptly increase the volume of the music, the opening of the bookcase had abruptly increased the feeling to the point that Sakura abruptly noticed it. However, looking back, she was sure she had felt it ever since she first walked in the bookstore, if not earlier.

Through the now open doorway was a small room. This room looked very different than the sleepy bookstore around them. It was much brighter, and the shelves inside had several large hand-written signs with titles like "Alchemy," "Prognostication," and "History." Something about the ambiance of the room reminded Sakura of her basement back home where she had first stumbled across the book which had contained all of the Clow Cards so long ago. This was despite the fact that the room looked very different in all respects.

"So which book is the first one on the list?" Kaho asked Sakura, interrupting her introspection.

Sakura pulled out the piece of paper entrusted to her and looked down the list for a book title without a mark next to it. Finding one, she read out, "The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)."

After 15 minutes of casual searching, Sakura had a stack of books to carry back to the front desk. She stood on her tiptoes and flopped the stack onto the counter in front of the shopkeeper.

"Find everything you need, missy?" Hank's gruff voice asked.

"I think so," Sakura said.

"It looks like you are missing some of your books there. What about," Hank paused as he skimmed through the stack of books, "'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi'?"

"We have an old copy of that back home. I doubt that book's changed one bit over the last hundred years," Eriol said with an unreadable expression on his face.

Hank nodded and gave a grunt of agreement. He then said, "Well, that'll be 25 Galleons, 11 Sickles, 12 Knuts total."

"I'm guessing expensive textbooks is something else which never changes. Here you go," Kaho said, placing 26 large gold coins on the table in front of the shopkeeper.

"I'm sure you're right. Here's your change," Hank said, waving his hand over the small golden pile and leaving about a dozen silver and copper coins behind in its wake.

"Thank you," Kaho said. The group left the shop, triggering the bell above the door to give the same metallic ring it had given on the way in.

The group's next stop on the shopping trip was to a clothing store for Sakura to get some school uniforms. More accurately, the next stop was a costume store which sold real witches' clothing as costumes.

Inside the moderately sized store, much larger on the inside than the outside would suggest, rows upon rows of costumes were lined up on racks throughout the building. There was everything from the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, to pirate and fairy costumes. Stopping by the Halloween section, Eriol and Kaho helped Sakura locate a particularly sturdy pointed hat while Ruby located some rather rough gloves with a furry lining inside. Several robes and a cloak filled out Sakura's wardrobe and they proceeded to the checkout registers. Approximately 15 Galleons later, the group walked out of the shop carrying several colorful bags of clothing.

"Is there anything else, Sakura?" Kaho asked Sakura.

"Everything else on the list is already has a mark next to it," Sakura said after checking the paper.

"Okay. Let's go back to the manor and we can get the rest of the things you'll need for school," Kaho suggested, leading everybody back to the parked car.

* * *

That evening after dinner, Eriol brought Sakura and Keroberos up to his laboratory on the third floor of the manor.

"We're going to need to make a wand for you, Sakura," Eriol explained.

"But I have a wand already," Sakura said, fidgeting with the Key still around her neck.

"No, Sakura. The Key isn't a wand as the Ministry of Magic would classify one. For your lessons in Hogwarts, you're going to need a genuine wand," Eriol said.

"What do you mean? If the Key isn't a wand then what is it?" Sakura asked.

"I don't think the Ministry of Magic has a classification for a device like the Key. About the closest thing they have on file would be a scepter. The Key acts like both a lens and a resonator, letting you gather and focus your inherent magical energy as well as helping you give it purpose without affecting your intent when casting spells," Eriol said.

"But then what does a wand do?" Sakura asked. She didn't really understand what Eriol had meant about the Key, but hoped that the explanation with how a wand worked in contrast would help shed some light on the matter.

"A wand uses a magical core to increase the energy a person can access to cast spells. The majority of energy from a wand is actually created by the core itself, not the person using the wand. This lets weaker wizards and witches still perform fairly strong charms and hexes, but it also means they have a lot less control over their magic. In fact most of the charms and curses wizards and witches in the West use have the primary purpose of limiting how the magic can manifest so they can achieve their desired goal despite this limited control, rather than serving a direct evocative purpose," Eriol explained.

It didn't do any good. Sakura still had no idea what Eriol was talking about. The unfamiliar terms and ideas washed over her, leaving her eyes slightly glazed but otherwise leaving no impression of understanding in Sakura's mind. However rather than cause a fuss and reveal her ignorance in an attempt to get clarification about what Eriol said, Sakura instead simply slowly nodded her head and said, "Okay."

"So to create a wand, the first thing we'll need is a magical core. I hope you don't mind if I use one of your feathers, Keroberos," Eriol said.

"No problem at all," Keroberos answered, and transformed to his true form.

Eriol walked over to Keroberos and deftly plucked a single feather from one of his wings.

"Now watch carefully, Sakura. Wands are simple enough on their own, but it's important to understand how they work to truly understand Western spells. They're also a good case study in how the West views and uses magic," Eriol said.

With wide eyes, Sakura watched as Eriol took the feather and pinched the two ends between his two thumbs and index fingers. He then slowly pulled his hands apart, as if stretching a piece of gum. As it reached 6 inches, then 8 inches, then 10 inches, the feather became more and more narrow.

Eriol stopped at about 12 inches, at which point the strand was so thin that Sakura could only see it because she knew it was there. Eriol then dropped his right hand, snatched a thin cylinder of wood on the table next to him, brought it together with his left hand, and twirled both hands together for about a dozen spins.

He then changed his grip to grab both ends of the wood and sharply pulled, pushed, and then pulled one last time. As he pulled this final time, straining so hard that his face contorted, the cylinder elongated to a total length of about 15 inches and developed a semi-pointed tip at one end.

Eriol stood perfectly still for a few seconds before letting out his held breath. He then casually let go of the handle of the wand and held it out to Sakura.

Sakura reverently took the wand and slowly turned it over in her hand, feeling the pleasantly dense but light wood. She playfully flicked the wand a couple of times, detecting an undercurrent of Keroberos's power within it as she did so. In a way the wand felt not entirely unlike the Sakura Cards she was so familiar with. This conjured up a trip down memory lane, and Sakura absently thought about her first catch of The Fly and her subsequent flight.

Suddenly the wand jerked in her hand and a beam of light shot out into a bookcase across the room. The bookcase bumped as if a deer had run into it at full speed, rocking back and forth a bit and knocking a few books off its shelves in the process. Sakura dropped the wand in shock.

"Careful," Eriol cautioned, and walked over to re-shelf the dropped books.

Sakura slowly bent over and picked up the wand, holding it much more gingerly this time. She carried it between both her hands in the same way that Eriol had done earlier.

"Don't worry. After it cures for a few days, it'll be much less touchy," Eriol reassured her.

* * *

Last Updated: September 8, 2012


	3. 3: Sakura's Train Trip to Hogwarts

Chapter 3: Sakura's Train Trip to Hogwarts

Sakura's time in Reed manor was like a dream, and much like a dream, it was inevitable that it would eventually come to an end. One day, during breakfast, Kaho said to Sakura, "Classes are going to be starting this Monday. Are you ready?"

"They are?" Sakura asked.

This announcement shouldn't have come as a surprise. However, in line with that feeling that life at the manor was like living in a dream, it had also contained a quality of timelessness which had beguiled Sakura. The lazy August days had passed by one after the other, each day almost identical to the previous, until finally, before Sakura had realized it, September was right around the corner.

Eriol's prediction had come true.

"Yes, they are. We'll need to go to the train station first thing tomorrow morning. From there we'll be catching a train to Hogwarts," Kaho said.

"A train trip?" Sakura asked, her voice telegraphing her enthusiasm.

"Yes. Hogwarts is a long way away from here. We'll need to take a train to get there," Kaho said.

"Yay!" Sakura cheered. While taking a train was nothing new for Sakura, she had never ridden a train in the United Kingdom before. She expected the scenery and everything else to be much more fun for that reason alone.

True to Kaho's word, the next day found everybody, even Spinel, in a car driving to the train station before the crack of dawn. It took about an hour of driving through the beautiful landscape of the United Kingdom, the most impressive sight being a gorgeous sunrise across the horizon, before they reached their destination. By the time they had reached the train station and filed out of the car, the morning routine of the town was firmly underway all around them.

"Goodbye Sakura. I hope you enjoy your time at Hogwarts," Eriol said with more kindness and affection than would normally be expected from somebody so apparently young. "Just remember, no matter what happens there, trust your instincts. You'll learn much more by doing what you think is right than from what your professors will be teaching you."

"I will. Thank you for everything, Eriol," Sakura answered.

"And don't forget what I told you either," Eriol added. "Try to keep the Sakura Cards a secret at Hogwarts if you can. Even if they aren't as famous as many other artifacts, showing off what they can do can attract all sorts of the wrong type of attention, especially if the wrong person sees you using them."

"Okay, Eriol," Sakura agreed.

"Goodbye, Eriol," Kaho said to the young looking boy, and then to the older looking woman beside him she added, "Be sure to take good care of him, Ruby."

"Goodbye, Kaho. Have a safe trip," Eriol replied.

"Will do," Ruby said, giving a mock salute.

"See you soon," Kaho said. She then leaned down and gave Eriol a hug and a kiss full of romantic affection. This, along with their brief conversation, would certainly add fuel to the speculation in the sleepy town about the two.

Ruby also leaned down and hugged Sakura. It was devoid of romance, but it was no less affectionate than Kaho's hug to Eriol. At the same time she said, "Be sure to take care of yourself at Hogwarts."

"Bye bye, Ruby," Sakura said.

Keroberos moved as if to join in the fun and hug Spinel as well, but his counterpart froze him with a cool stare. He awkwardly put his hands down and made his way into Sakura's suitcase instead.

A few heartfelt moments later, Eriol walked around and got into the driver's seat of the car. One last wave, and then Eriol drove off with Ruby and Spinel sitting in the passenger seat and back seat respectively. That Eriol was driving raised more than a few metaphorical eyebrows in town. Several townspeople turned to watch the apparent child driving away, but nobody moved to stop him.

As the car disappeared into the distance, Kaho and Sakura turned around and walked into the train station, luggage in tow behind them.

The train station was as busy could be expected for the modest town they were in; only a few dozen people were wandering around, and they were mostly minding their own business.

"We need to go to platform -1, Sakura," Kaho explained. "It's this way."

"Platform -1?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. The magical community tries to keep itself hidden from muggles. That's everybody who can't use magic. They hide everything magical behind barriers," Kaho explained. Her expression revealed nothing of her opinion of that fact.

By this point they were at the end of the train platform. Kaho pointed in front of her and said, "The stairs are right there."

Sakura looked, but all she could see was some gravel and the far wall of the station. She said, "I don't see anything there."

"It's protected by an illusion, but if you look carefully, it's right there," Kaho said. She had walked beside Sakura, knelt down, and pointed once again to the empty air just to the right of the center edge of the platform.

Sakura squinted and stared harder. For a fleeting second she thought she saw something which looked like The Illusion, but the image vanished before she could be certain. She just shook her head and said, "I still don't see anything."

"Don't worry. Piercing illusions is hard, but I'm sure you'll learn how to do it soon enough," Kaho said. She kept to herself the fact that most of the wizards and witches in the West couldn't pierce even the most shallow of illusions, and these were adults who had been surrounded by magic their entire lives.

"There's a step down here. Be careful," Kaho said. She took Sakura by the hand and led her to the edge of the platform.

After taking a quick glance around to make sure nobody was watching too closely, such as a certain tabloid journalist who had been trying to get the scoop on her and Eriol, Kaho took the first step down. Sakura hesitantly took a step down as well.

If there had been any muggles watching from the platform they would have seen the unusual sight of Kaho and Sakura standing on an invisible ledge. One step later and the small girl would have suddenly disappeared from view. Another step and the tall woman would have disappeared as well.

From Sakura's perspective there was a very different visual effect. As she took the first step down, gently putting her weight on the invisible stair, the world in front of her seemed to peel away. It was as if there had been a screen in front of her displaying a photograph of the empty space she had been expecting to see. With the first step, this screen slowly dissolved away like a sheet of rice paper being submerged in water. The center area faded into view first, with the rest fizzing into place by the end of the second step.

Halfway down they turned to follow the stairs, which revealed to Sakura an entire new floor. It looked very similar to the platform above it, albeit much more shaded and containing a magnificent train waiting for passengers. It wasn't a fast looking train. Rather than the sculpted round ends of a bullet train, it instead looked like it might have been a coal-powered iron relic from centuries past. The giant smoke stacks rising above the engine completed the look of romantic antiquity.

Kaho lead Sakura to a train car near the front of the platform. The pair entered the basically empty train and walked to one of the first cabins in the car, where upon Kaho held the door open for Sakura to enter.

After Sakura had entered the cabin, Kaho leaned down and told her, "Now the trip to Hogwarts will take all day and there will be five stops along the way. You can wander around while the train is moving, but you should probably stay in the cabin during the stops. Just be sure you don't lose track of your luggage."

"You aren't going to sit with me?" Sakura asked, the hint of a frown showing up on her face.

"No. Professors are supposed to sit separately from all the students. Besides it will be easier for you to meet new friends if you don't have a professor sitting with you as well," Kaho answered.

"Okay," Sakura said with a nod of understanding.

"Don't worry, I'll be sitting in one of the cabins in the front over in that direction," Kaho said, pointing to the left of the door. "If you need anything you can come get me there."

"Okay," Sakura said again.

Kaho then left, letting the door close behind her as she walked to the front of the train.

Now on her own, Sakura took her suitcase and wondered how she would get it stored. First she put it on the bench on the side of the room. Then, standing on the bench herself, she picked it up over her head. After a great deal of struggling, including some precarious teetering on her feet, she somehow managed to shove the suitcase onto a storage rack above her head. Inwardly she wondered how Keroberos had managed to sleep through all of that.

Sakura then sat back down, slightly winded, and gave a quiet sigh. She reached over to her backpack and pulled out an old book with rumpled edges called "A Mundane Guide to the World of Magic." She pulled it open to a page in the middle and began reading where she had left off.

Several minutes, a few pages, and a couple of shrieks of a loud whistle later, the train started to move. This prompted Sakura to put the book down and watch out the window as the houses quickly thinned out and eventually vanished, revealing the splendid English countryside all around her.

After several minutes of watching the scenery she decided to explore the train for a bit. She took a quick look at her suitcase, but decided that if Keroberos was was trying to sleep then she would be better off leaving him to it and venturing out on her own. She got up from her bench, opened the door to her cabin, poked her head out of the door, and went wandering to the right.

It turned out that next to her passenger car was a dining car. It looked decidedly different than the room she had settled in. Various tables and chairs were spread across the sleepy room. Most notably, the room had a bar along the side of it. Standing behind the bar was a middle aged man with a large brown mustache. Behind the man was a line of wrapped confections and snacks, each with a handwritten sign in English labeling what it was. While she could read the signs easily enough, they gave Sakura no insight into what the treats actually were.

The man looked up briefly and smiled to the staring Sakura. After some brief conversation, he convinced Sakura to try out one of the sweets behind him. The colorful display and numerous signs did little to help her decide what to get and she ended up picking one at random, something called a Cauldron Cake. Sakura handed over two silver Sickles, and in return she got back 12 Knuts and a tightly wrapped package. She put the bronze coins back into her purse, hesitantly took the package, unwrapped it, and took a bite of the treat in her hand.

It was a sweet, cauldron-shaped cake covered with a chocolate covering on the outside. Ignoring the magically inspired shape, it was very similar to one of any number of snacks she could have bought back in Japan. It was tasty enough, but it had the same mass-produced flavor that all commercially bought snacks had. This left it tasting like a reasonably good but inferior imitation to the hand-made cakes and chocolates she would occasionally make with Tomoyo.

With the treat consumed, Sakura thanked the man behind the counter and continued her exploration of the train. Behind the dining car were two more passenger cars. However, Sakura didn't dare look into any of the rooms, so she didn't meet anybody. Her curiosity satisfied, Sakura turned back to her room, intending to continue her studies of this magical world she had found herself thrust into.

* * *

Outside of the train window, houses started popping up like so many daisies after a spring shower as the train approached the center of the town. Sakura noticed this town had a very different feel than the one she had boarded from, despite the fact that her knowledge of the town was limited to the two second fragments of life she glimpsed through half an inch of glass. The people here seemed much more hurried, and the didn't emit the same feelings of approachability that the people in the first town had.

The train slowly came to a stop in a large, hanger-like building. Sakura saw a large group of children impatiently milling about on the platform outside the window. Most of them were accompanied by one or two adults pushing a pushcart stacked with containers. This resulted in the platform looking like a veritable sea of metal, luggage, and humanity. Topping this sea like so many islands were a plethora of cages filled with enough cats, owls, and toads to make any zoo green with envy.

Many minutes, more bumps, and more than one expletive later, the platform was almost devoid of children. As she considered this, the door behind her opened, causing her to turn reflexively for what felt like the hundredth time.

Sakura gave a modest "hello" to her visitor but knew what would happen next. As had happened several times already, the boy or girl would poke his or her head in, see Sakura, give a quiet "hi," and then close the door again. It was therefore a surprise when a boisterous voice said, "Hello. Do you mind if I sit here?"

Sakura looked up at the visitor. In front of her she saw a tall girl with long blonde hair wearing a white blouse and a pleated skirt. Standing almost five and a half feet tall, her height dwarfed Sakura, but even more striking was the confident smile which adorned her face, just on this side of arrogance.

"Yes. I mean no. I mean go ahead," Sakura said.

"I'm Gloria. Gloria Tarnen, from Windsor's Preparatory Academy for Witches," the girl declared as if everybody knew where that was. As she said this she turned around and grabbed two suitcases behind her, pulling them into the cabin. "This is my first year at Hogwarts."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kino... I mean Sakura Kinomoto," Sakura introduced herself, reflexively giving a small bow as she said this. Gloria's back was still turned as she tried to bring her things into the cabin, so Sakura doubted Gloria saw her.

"Nice to meet you Sakura. Where are you from?" Gloria asked, easily sliding her gilded cage with its gray owl to the storage racks above the benches as she talked. This was followed with a much more difficult attempt to move her suitcases to the same location.

Sakura saw Gloria struggling to lift the suitcases to the grating above, despite her tall stature, and moved to help her. As she did so she said, "I'm from Tomoeda, in Tokyo."

Both stood on their toes as they pushed Gloria's suitcases onto the racks above and tried their best not to get crushed by the teetering luggage. This position was especially precarious for Sakura as she balanced herself on the bench, much like she had done for her own suitcase. After a few more moments of poking and then holding their breaths, the two girls were finally able to get the suitcases safely stored on the racks above. They then both collapsed onto the benches, sitting on opposite sides of the cabin.

"Tokyo? Where's that?" Gloria asked.

"It's in Japan," Sakura said.

"Oh. You're from Japan?" Gloria asked with surprise evident in her voice.

"Yes," Sakura said

"Say something in Japanese," Gloria excitedly asked.

"Ahh..." Sakura stalled while trying to think of something to say. She decided to just greet Gloria again, and said while giving another reflexive bow, "Hajimemashite. Douzo yoroshiku onigaishimasu."

"Wow. That sounds so pretty. What's it like there, in Japan? Is it true that everyone is a black belt and there are fights in school every day?" Gloria asked.

"No, not at all," Sakura answered honestly. "I only know three people who know fighting, and two of them are from China."

Almost as if on cue, a loud whistle pierced the air, drowning out Gloria's reply. However, while the noise of the whistle masked what Gloria said, it couldn't cover her crestfallen face. As the whistle died down, though, her smile returned and she continued unperturbed, "I see. Then what's it like there?"

"I think it's good. The people in Japan are nice, and it has good weather," Sakura answered hesitantly. The question was so vague that she didn't know what kind of answer Gloria was looking for.

"How do they cast charms? My dad told me they don't even know how to make wands out there," Gloria asked.

"There's this thing. I think Eriol called it a sepeta? I'm not sure. You just..." Sakura's words failed her and she pantomimed swinging the Key and having it intersect a flying card.

"I see," Gloria said nodding, although she didn't really understand what Sakura was trying to say. A second blast of the whistle gave her a few seconds to organize her thoughts.

"But how do you actually, you know, cast the spell?" Gloria asked while mimicking Sakura's earlier gesticulations. To Gloria, firmly entrenched in Western magic, casting a spell without a wand was like trying to drive a car without a steering wheel. Or fuel. Or wheels. Not only could it not be done, it flat out didn't make any sense.

"Hoe..." Sakura lamented. She then said, "Sorry, but I just learned magic a little while ago so I can't explain it very well."

"You just learned? You mean your parents didn't use magic around the house?" Gloria asked.

"My parents were," Sakura said, trying to remember the term Kaho had used earlier, "muggles?"

"Oh, muggles? I guess that would make sense then," Gloria said.

At this point the train gave its third shrill shriek and then started to move again. The loud grating of the wheels against the track made speech impossible for several minutes. Eventually the powerful din had reduced to a dull throb which allowed their conversation to continue.

Sakura restarted the conversation by asking, "Do you have any brothers and sisters?"

"Yes, I have a brother. An older brother," Gloria said.

"What's he like?" Sakura asked.

"He's rude, and arrogant, and mean," Gloria answered, her face showing more than a hint of annoyance. "He always saying I'm too tall and making fun of me for not being able to use a wand yet."

"I know what you mean," Sakura nodded enthusiastically.

"You do? Do also you have a brother?" Gloria asked, equally enthusiastically.

"Yes. He is always making fun of me for being too short," Sakura said. She didn't mention how he always teased her about being being a monster all the time as well.

"Brothers are terrible, aren't they?" Gloria said.

"Yes," Sakura agreed. Even when Toya had helped her out, like with the birdhouse at the end of that one holiday, he always held it against her afterward. Why couldn't he be as nice to her as he was to Yukito?

"Well, you're lucky at least. Your brother can't bother you anymore. My brother's actually on this train going to Hogwarts too," Gloria said.

"He is? Where is he?" Sakura asked.

"He's sitting in a different cabin. 'I'm a fourth year Slytherin. I can't be babysitting you all day. Go find someone else to sit with. I need all of these seats for my friends,'" Gloria mocked in a brash imitation of her brother.

"I see," Sakura answered.

"By the way, aren't your parents worried about you studying over here? Isn't it really far away from home?" Gloria asked.

"No. Father is fine, and Professor Mizuki is around too which helps," Sakura said.

"Who is Professor Mizuki?" Gloria asked.

"She's a friend of mine who's a professor at Hogwarts," Sakura said.

"Oh, you know one of the professors? That's brilliant. What does she teach?" Gloria asked.

"I don't remember," Sakura admitted.

"I see," Gloria said before the pair lapsed into another silence, staring out the window beside them.

Sakura and Gloria talked on and off for a bit longer before deciding to go explore the train together. Despite the fact Sakura had looked around earlier, she figured that accompanying Gloria would be more interesting than just waiting around in the cabin for the next stop.

Sakura let Gloria take the lead as she re-entered the dining care adjacent to their passenger car. It now projected a very different feeling from the first time Sakura had visited. The collection of teenagers sitting around the tables filled the room with the pleasant murmur of life, making the car look more like a student hotspot than the sleepy bar it had appeared as earlier.

"Oh, a candy store," Gloria enthusiastically said. "Want to see what they have?"

A perfunctory nod from Sakura found the two of them walking towards the counter. Gloria's eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store, appropriately enough. Sakura on the other hand squinted at the candies and snacks for the second time that day. The numerous English labels on them were as cryptic as they had been the first time she had seen them an hour earlier.

"One chocolate frog and one strawberry juice please," Gloria requested.

"One chocolate frog and one strawberry juice," the shopkeeper repeated. "That will be 4 Sickles, 14 Knuts."

The man took the proffered silver coins in Gloria's hand, counted them, and then handed back 15 bronze Knuts along with the drink and the packaged chocolate saying, "Here you go."

The shopkeeper then turned to Sakura and asked, "What about you miss? Did you want another Cauldron Cake?"

"No, I'm okay," Sakura answered. She had enjoyed the previous one well enough, but it wasn't anything too special, and she didn't want to spend all the money Eriol and Kaho had given her before even reaching Hogwarts.

The pair walked over to an open table and sat down. Gloria first took a sip of the strawberry juice and gave out a sigh of pleasure. She then asked, "Have you ever had a chocolate frog before?"

"No," Sakura answered.

"You should try one. They're fun," Gloria said. She then viciously ripped open the box and shook the frog contained within out onto the table.

The brown frog landed on its back and futilely shook a leg in the air. Gloria callously picked the frog up and flipped it over. The frog sat there twitching its head around, looking for all the world like it was disoriented and panicking. It then took a long jump to the left, where Gloria casually intercepted it with her right hand, knocking it back to the center of the table. The frog then jumped to the right, where Gloria deftly knocked it back with the same ease she had shown in the other direction.

As Sakura watched Gloria play with the animal a growing look of horror, sympathy, sadness, and fear danced across her face. This was replaced with a look of surprise as the chocolate frog, frantically looking around in apparent panic for an avenue of escape, took a final desperate lunge away from its tormentor towards Sakura.

Sakura jumped back in shock, almost knocking into a boy sitting behind her. Gloria, who had expected this from a long history of eating chocolate frogs, remained unperturbed and just casually reached out, grabbing it by one of its hind legs in the middle of the air. Then, still holding the leg with her left hand, Gloria grabbed the body of the frog with her right hand and stretched the leg out. The remaining three limbs flailed around in the air uselessly as she brought the frog up to her mouth. With a decisive finality, her upper and lower teeth came together through the leg. At this moment the frog stopped stock still as if it were a cartoon character suffering a mock heart attack. Gloria chewed briefly and then popped the rest of the leg into her mouth.

By this point Sakura had tears forming in her eyes and was almost crying in pity for the suffering frog. Gloria looked up at Sakura and, misinterpreting her expression, broke off a piece of the frog's head. She held it out to Sakura and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want to try some?"

"That poor frog!" Sakura cried out loudly enough for a pair of boys sitting at the table next to them to glance over. Not seeing anything amiss with their neighbors, the boys turned around again and went back to talking about the rumors of some potter who was going to be joining the school.

"What? What's the problem? It's not like it's alive. It's just a spell," Gloria said, then popped the piece of chocolate head into her mouth.

"But... But..." Sakura ineffectually protested.

Gloria didn't really notice Sakura's quiet protest as she happily placed the last bit of the frog into her mouth, giving another quiet moan of delight she sucked on the last bit of chocolate until it fully dissolved in her mouth. By this point she had almost finished her strawberry juice as well. With one last big gulp, she finished her drink and sat back with a large smile of contentment on her face.

"Ahh, do you want to look around more?" Sakura asked. She was eager to put the gruesome spectacle from a few moments ago behind her.

Sakura's question seemed to float over Gloria's head for a second before it sunk in to her consciousness. "Hmm? Oh, sure. Where do you want to go?"

"Let's just keep looking around," Sakura suggested.

She got to her feet, followed by Gloria. Left behind on the table was the empty glass, the remains of the box the frog had come in, and a half-ripped card of Cornelius Fudge. The picture of the Minister for Magic looked quite cross at having been both ripped and then subsequently left on the table, long forgotten.

Both Sakura and Gloria walked toward the other end of the dining car, dodging around a couple of people in tightly packed chairs. As Sakura weaved her way through the crowd one of the tables caught her attention. On the surface of the table were lots of little black and white men in armor standing on squares facing each other. Behind the two armies were two older students, staring intently at the table.

"What's that?" Sakura asked Gloria, pointing at the confronting armies.

"It looks like they're playing a game of wizard's chess," Gloria said.

As she said this, one of the boys said something as well. This prompted one of the small white men on a white horse to move across the table and then slash down on a black man in black priestly robes, cutting him first in half and then into quarters. Sakura gave a shriek of fright and backed away from the table.

"Aww, come on now. How about some quiet? I'm trying to think," the boy sitting behind the black pieces said, not bothering to look up.

"Sorry," Sakura stammered out, moving as quickly as she could short of an outright run towards the dining car's exit. Between the carnage she had just seen and Gloria's recent callous devouring of the chocolate frog, it seemed to Sakura that the world of magic in the United Kingdom was most violent. She hoped she hadn't made a mistake in deciding to come to Hogwarts.

Sakura opened the door at the opposite end of the dining car and walked across the small bridge in front of her, happy to put the scenes of violence she had just witnessed behind her. Unlike the dining car, the passenger car she was now entering looked identical to the last time she had seen it with the exception that it now contained a small trolley on the side of the hallway.

"It looks like another passenger car. How far do you think these go?" Gloria asked.

"The train was very long when I looked at it from the outside. I'm guessing it goes on a long way," Sakura said.

"Hmm," Gloria said, "Do you want to take a look in one of these cabins?"

"That might be a little weird," Sakura said, feeling uncomfortable with just barging into a random stranger's room uninvited.

"Oh, I know. Why don't we go back and have a look at the engine?" Gloria suggested.

"Okay," Sakura said.

The pair turned around and headed back to the dining car behind them. Sakura's last glimpse of the passenger car was of an elderly woman coming out of a room. She emerged from the room and then pushed the trolley in the hallway to the next cabin over.

Since leaving the dining car moments earlier one of the older teenagers had acquired a copy of the Daily Prophet and was gesturing wildly towards his companions. The shopkeeper still stood casually behind the counter, slowly polishing some glasses. Sakura gave a slight wave to the man as she passed, which was returned with a nod of his head.

As they left the dining cabin, the last thing Sakura heard was the boy with the newspaper almost yelling to his companions over the noise of the train, "But if they were to send aurors, we wouldn't have to..." The rest was lost to the rush of wind from the now open door.

The pair walked at a sedate pace through the car they had started in and its corridor devoid of other people. They were interrupted halfway through the car though when a brown cat with white and black stripes jumped out from a gap of a not-quite-closed door and stood in their way. It turned to look at the pair and gave a quiet meow.

Sakura reflexively exclaimed "cute" in Japanese and knelt down in front of the cat. She then reached forward with her right hand to scratch under the cat's head.

The door to her left suddenly opened with a mild bang, and a girl with short brown hair stood in the door frame. She wore a green blouse, white pants, and an annoyed expression. She practically bit out the words, "His name is Fenreth, not Kawaii, and he's my cat. Come back here, Fenreth."

The cat gave another meow, turned, and leaped into the girl's arms. The girl then closed the door with enough force to cause the frame to give a barely visible shudder. Seeing this, Sakura turned to Gloria, who gave a shrug. She then got back to her feet and the two kept walking. Two cars later, the pair encountered a locked door blocking their journey to the engine room. Neither of the girls felt ambitious enough to try knocking on the door.

Defeated, they decided to head back to their cabin and just waited for the next stop.

* * *

"You mean everybody has to participate?" Gloria asked Sakura. Both were sitting in their cabin facing each other.

Sakura's reply to Gloria's question was drowned out, first by the train's loud whistle blowing its warning of the pending stop, and then by the high pitched squeal of the breaks and the metal on metal grinding that Sakura had come to associate with how the anachronistic locomotive came to a halt.

The platform outside the window appeared very similar to the one where Gloria had entered from. If anything it was even more disorganized than that station. The older students, having learned from past years how few open seats remained by this late stop of the train, were exercising the authority that came from experience, age, and, most importantly, size to force their way to the front of the platform.

This caused the younger students to be pushed to the back of the queue. They would learn the same painful lessons of trying to find a place to sit and store their luggage that their seniors had experienced in years past, where upon they would in turn inflict a similar fate on their juniors next year.

The train finally came to a stop and the children swarmed aboard like so many round pegs into square doorways.

"Is it always like this?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know. This is my first time too," Gloria said.

This time during the frenzied embarkation of students, there was enough of a ruckus that Sakura could actually hear the trampling of feet in the hallway outside their door. The door itself was also opened so frequently that it barely had a chance to close before another enterprising individual shoved it open again, hoping beyond hope to get lucky and see the one empty cabin everyone else had overlooked. Finding the cabin inhabited by not only one but two unknown girls, most intruders just continued on their way without even acknowledging the pair.

Most ignored them, but not everybody. A few minutes after the boarding started, the door opened yet again, revealing a slightly stocky young boy. He had short blond hair and stood noticeably taller than Sakura, although he came nowhere near Gloria's height. His black cloak was carefully cleaned and pressed, with its creases still showing. However, the cloak was also rather threadbare. A large section on the left was almost translucent, and a sharp eyed observer would notice a black patch sewn on its right shoulder as well. The rest of his clothing revealed this same mixture of care and use, with his pants showing a few loose threads unraveling in their cuffs, and his shirt's patched elbow barely visible behind his cloak.

"Good day. Do you mind if I take a seat?" the boy asked.

Sakura and Gloria exchanged a glance before Sakura said, "Please do."

The boy easily carried his small case into the cabin. Perched on the top of the case was a metal cage with a large brown owl inside. This he placed on the racks above, next to Gloria's gilded cage and Sakura's pack. His case in turn was placed next to Gloria's luggage above. With all of his possessions stowed away he took a seat next to Sakura.

"My name is Anthony," the boy said.

"I'm Sakura. This is Gloria," Sakura said.

Gloria gave a slight wave and added with more than a hint of pride in her voice, "I'm from Windsor's Preparatory Academy for Witches. Where are you from?"

Anthony showed no recognition of the name and just said, "I'm from Robin Introductory School."

"Oh, Robin Introductory School? Isn't that near Nottingham?" Gloria asked.

"Yes. In Sherwood," Anthony said, swelling with pride at his school being recognized. What it was recognized for, he had no idea, but he assumed that it was for a reason he should be proud of.

"What about you, Sakura? Which school are you from?" Anthony asked, butchering the pronunciation of her name. The overemphasized "ku" made the word sound alien to her ear.

"Me? I'm from Tomoeda School," Sakura said.

"Tomoeda School?" Anthony asked, trying to twist his tongue around the strange sounds.

"Tomeda is in Japan. Sakura here is from there," Gloria said, equally butchering the pronunciation of Sakura's name. She acted like this was common knowledge, rather than it being something she had just learned an hour ago.

"You are? Say something in Japanese," Anthony said.

Sakura was prepared for the question this time and said for the second time in as many hours, "Hajimemashite. Dozo yoroshiku onigashimasu."

"Hajimate dozer what? What does that mean?" Anthony asked.

"It means 'nice to meet you.'" Sakura said.

"Wow, that's a lot to say just to say 'hello,'" Gloria jumped in. "How did you say that again? Hajishite yoro?"

"No. Hajimemashite. Ha-ji-me-ma-shi-te," Sakura said.

"Hajimemashite," Anthony finally managed to say, albeit with a very heavy accent. "Wasn't there something else you said too?"

"Ah. 'Dozo yorushiku onigaishimasu,'" Sakura said.

"I see. Okay," Anthony said. Instead of trying to figure out how to say the second half of the phrase, Anthony instead changed the subject and asked, "So, how is life in Japan."

Sakura's already existent deja vu redoubled at this question, but before she could answer, Gloria jumped in. She asked, "Wait a second. Japan? Isn't that where that wild mage put everybody to sleep a few months ago?"

"Wild mage? What wild mage?" Anthony asked.

"That wild mage from a few months ago. Don't you remember? It was in all the papers: the Daily Prophet, The Defender, the Daily Tale. 'Tokyo City Asleep', 'Wild Mag Still on the Loose', 'London House Prices Soar'," Gloria said, announcing the headlines with a dramatic flair in her voice.

"Wild Mag?" Sakura asked, imagining some magazine flying around in an uncontrolled whirlwind.

"I think they probably meant to say 'Mage,'" Anthony explained. "I don't get the house prices one, though."

"It's the Daily Tale. They say everything affects house prices," Gloria said dismissively. "Are you sure you didn't hear anything about it?"

"No I didn't. What happened?" Anthony asked.

"Oh. It was pretty scary. All of the papers were saying how incompetent the Eastern authorities were that they couldn't find, let alone control, a mage strong enough to put a whole city to sleep. Imagine somebody stronger than You-Know-Who just running around on the loose. My father kept saying that my mother should just lead a squad of aurors over there and show them how it's done, or maybe we could send over a whole division and help them set up some infrastructure and teach them some real magic, like we did in Hong Kong," Gloria said.

"Wow. Somebody stronger than You-Know-Who? That does sound pretty serious. Did that sleeping thing affect you Sakura?" Anthony asked.

"Kind of," Sakura tentatively answered. She didn't know how Gloria knew about her final confrontation with Eriol. She herself hadn't heard anything about it despite living in Tokyo, and that was the location of the event itself and not half a world away.

"Do you know what happened?" Gloria asked.

"Did they ever catch the bloke who did it?" Anthony added.

"Did they ever figure out what curse was used?" Gloria continued.

"I don't know," Sakura said. She was hesitant to say too much about the confrontation and her eventual triumph, not wanting to start her school life with a reputation.

"Really? Oh, you were probably put to sleep with the rest of them, weren't you? After all, it's not like you could resist a mass curse before learning anything in school right?" Gloria reasoned.

"But she must have heard something after it ended," Anthony said.

"Sakura has muggle parents so she might not have heard anything about it. For that matter even the wizards and witches in the East don't really know much about how magic works. It wouldn't be that surprising if they never found out what really happened," Gloria stated as a matter of fact.

"I see," Anthony said. The revelation that Sakura was born to muggle parents caused Anthony to change the way he viewed her. He made the normal assumption that Sakura, like almost every other muggle-born child, didn't know the first thing about magic. Moreover, as she was from such a magically-backwater place like Japan, she probably knew less than your average idiot. He came to a conclusion and said, "I say, do you want to see some magic?"

"You know some charms?" Gloria asked in surprise. He looked much too nice to be one of those "dangerous hooligans playing around with their parents' wands" that her parents always talked about.

"I have a special permit to use magic so I can help my parents run their business. I got my wand two years ago, and help out at the inn. My relatives always say I'm the most talented wizard in the family. I'm the first one to go to Hogwarts, you know," Anthony declared proudly. "I'm not supposed to use it when they are not around, though, so don't tell anybody."

"Oh yeah, then let's see you cast a charm then," Gloria challenged.

Anthony glanced back and forth trying to find something he could demonstrate before he saw the spotted window on the side of the cabin. The glass wasn't nearly as dirty as would make the effort worth it normally, but it would do for a demonstration for the magically-ignorant muggle-born witch. He pointed to the glass and said, "Okay, see that window?"

"Yes," Sakura answered. The window was slightly spotted with water-stains, dirt, and several other unidentifiable substances.

"Right, then," he said, and pulled out his wand with his right hand. The wand was short, and light enough for even a nine year old to handle with ease. It was maybe 7 inches long and made of ash. Its light color showed sweat and wear marks where it had been held over the years.

"This is a wand. We use them to cast spells. Now, watch this," Anthony said. He pointed the wand at the window and said, "Scourgify."

The glass fogged over with a smoky-gray look as it was covered with tiny bubbles. This slowly faded away until the glass was back to the clear but water-marked appearance it had started with. From there it continued to lighten until the window was as clear as crystal.

Anthony tried to hide his pleasure at the look of surprise from Gloria. He always took a guilty pleasure in showing off. With more than a little smugness, he asked her, "So, do you know any magic?"

"I know some," Sakura hesitantly answered, mistaking the question as one directed towards her.

"That's alright, I'm sure once we get to Hogwarts..." Anthony started saying before what Sakura said registered. He had had this conversation with several students already on the boarding platform and had a pre-set consolatory speech for their inevitable denial of knowing any magic. This speech was abruptly cut off as what Sakura said percolated through his ears and forced its way into his consciousness. "Wait, what? You do?"

He had been told that very few other children had any practical knowledge of magic beyond their toys and play wands. Not only that, Sakura wasn't even a normal child. She was the muggle-born one from the East, a place where they thought magic was which way the door to your house faced and what furniture you placed in a room.

"You do? Oh, I just knew my parents were being too strict," Gloria said. More than a hint of annoyance was showing on her face. She asked, "What kind of charms do you know?"

"One moment and I'll show you," Sakura said.

She rooted around in her pack until she found the bound book containing all of the Sakura Cards inside of it. She could have used her wand and shown one of the tricks she had learned from Eriol earlier, but she still couldn't control those very well, and being known as "the girl who blew out a window of the Hogwarts Express" wasn't very appealing to her, even if it was better than "the girl who claimed to have saved an entire city from a massive sleep curse."

Sakura reasoned they hadn't actually reached Hogwarts Castle yet so using the cards would be alright, despite Eriol's warning. Besides, the only people around were Anthony and Gloria, and they seemed like nice people.

Sakura grabbed the bright pink book with "SAKURA" written in large font on the cover and pulled it out. She next pulled out the Key from around her necklace. A quick chant in Japanese which neither of the British passengers in the room understood caused the expanded form of the Key to extend from both sides of her hand.

At the sight of the bright pink rod, both the remaining vestige of smugness on Anthony's face as well as the look of annoyance on Gloria's face disappeared. Both were replaced with a look of obvious curiosity. This look only increased as Sakura pulled open the book and revealed the stack of bright pink cards with stylized drawings of people on the front and bright pink patterns matching the book's cover on the back.

"What's she doing?" Anthony whispered to Gloria.

"I don't know," Gloria whispered back.

To Sakura, the whole process felt surreal. After all this time of Tomoyo imposed dress-up, just casting the spells without the surrounding ritual felt unnaturally plain. She smiled to herself at that thought and, to appease herself, she decided to add at least a little extra flourish to the casting.

That only left the question of what she would be casting. Sakura stared at the stack of cards, lost in thought about what she should demonstrate. While she was thinking, the memory of the snacks she had bought from the nice man in the dining car when she had first gone exploring on her own randomly came to mind. She eventually came to a conclusion about what magic she would show off and willed the appropriate cards into her hand, pulling them right out from the middle of the still stacked deck.

Sakura flicked both The Sweet and The Create cards carelessly up into the air, knowing from experience they would be where she needed them to be when she needed them to be there. She gave a quick twirl with the Key then chanted in Japanese, "Create, Sweet, make me some of that delicious cake I had earlier in the dining car. Create! Sweet!"

She swung down the Key as hard as she dared in the small cabin, catching both of the cards as they intersected right in front of her like she knew they would. A large burst of mana emerged from both cards in the shape of a large book and a small fairy. Both images spun around each other in a spiral until a large brown cake appeared, hovering in midair in front of Sakura. Their job done, the cards returned to their card shape and flew back to her hand. She put them back into the book and put the Key away around her neck as well. Sakura then reached out, and the still hovering cake fell neatly into her hands.

Anthony paid no attention to Sakura as she happily munched on the largest Cauldron Cake he had ever seen. His stunned mind instead whirled in confusion while he tried to make heads or tails of the magic Sakura had just performed. He had no idea what had just happened. It couldn't have been an Accio charm; she hadn't called for a Cauldron Cake in any form that he had recognized, and even if she had it didn't explain how it had hovered in mid-air while she had put everything away. It could have been an apparition where Sakura had summoned the cake to appear before her, but that still left the problem of how the treat that had been summoned had hovered in mid-air, and that was even assuming this young girl was capable of apparitions. Moreover, none of the theories he could think of explained the pink rod and strange cards she had used. He had never heard of anything like this before.

Gloria's jaw, bereft of other instructions, fell open in a wide gape. Her parents couldn't do that. Nobody could do that. She turned to look at Anthony for help but his jaw was in a similar position to hers, suggesting he had no more answers than she did.

Further reflection was abruptly interrupted when a shout came down from above Sakura's head. Looking up, Gloria saw what could only be described as a floating stuffed animal. She was so flummoxed by this point that this little extra weirdness didn't really make things any worse.

Keroberos had been sleeping for the past few hours. At least he had been trying to sleep and stay out of sight for the past few hours. Eriol hadn't expected any problems with Keroberos playing the part of Sakura's familiar, but magical lions weren't nearly as common as owls, cats, or frogs to the school, even in plushie-form. Even with Kaho around to support them, Keroberos thought it prudent to try and keep a low profile.

Unfortunately, the train was proving remarkably unhelpful to this endeavor. The rhythmic bumps of the wheels could have been hypnotic for some, but this was vastly outweighed by the noise the old iron machinery was putting out. Adding to the cacophony was the occasional shriek of the train's whistle, guaranteed to jolt Keroberos out of any sort of reverie he had managed to achieve. Making the almost intolerably situation no longer just "almost" were the frequent pulses of magic signaling a translocation of some kind occurring which would jolt through Keroberos on a regular basis.

But Keroberos would endure. He would prove the strength of a guardian beast. He fought his instinct, covered his ears, and tried to ignore everything. Finally, almost as if to add insult to injury, the two owls next to his impromptu bed had started hooting towards each other. It was quiet enough that the children below apparently didn't hear it, but it was loud enough that it made Keroberos really want to return to his true form and have a snack of domesticated fowl.

The straw that finally broke the camel's back was much more benign than the others. The tender, familiar feeling of magic characterizing Sakura's usage of the Sakura Cards washed over him. This calmed his frazzled nerves for a moment until he realized what it meant. Sakura was using a card! Keroberos scrambled out of the suitcase, startling the two nearby owls.

"Sa-ku-ra! What'cha think you're doing? You weren't supposed to use the cards at Hogwarts," Keroberos said. He spoke with a noticeably louder than ordinary voice in his Osaka accented Japanese.

"But we aren't at Hogwarts yet and I wanted to show my friends here some magic," Sakura responded in Japanese.

"It doesn't matter that we're not at the school itself yet. You were supposed to try to keep the Sakura Cards a secret from everybody. It's important. We don't want rumors spread'n, or anybody to take it," Keroberos said.

Sakura knew that Keroberos was right and that she had probably made a mistake in using the cards. "Okay. I'll be more careful," she promised.

"Well, it shouldn't be so bad with just these two here. They sound nice enough," Keroberos added as an appeasement.

"W..w.. what is that?" Gloria exclaimed. She was on her feet, wand held before her in a defensive position. She desperately hoped whatever it was didn't know she couldn't cast a single charm or hex, and more importantly wouldn't call her bluff.

"And just where do you think you're pointing that at?" Keroberos asked in as ominous a voice as he could manage in English.

Keroberos was no more scared of this obvious bluff than he had been when he faced down the child prodigy of the Li family when they had first met. In fact, he didn't even have the modicum of concern he had had back then. The coddled children of the West weren't known for their ability to cast balls of flaming death or summon tornadoes like the Li family was, after all.

"Well?" Keroberos repeated when no answer was forthcoming.

"Leave her alone, Kero-chan," Sakura said loudly in English. She then turned to Gloria and Anthony.

"Don't worry, this is Keroberos. He's my," Sakura struggled to think of how to say guardian in English, but gave up and finished, "friend."

"Friend? Your friend? But it's not even human. It's... it's... what is it?" Gloria asked.

"Keroberos is," Sakura continued to fumble over words. "Keroberos."

"I'm the Guardian Beast Keroberos. You can think of me as Sakura's familiar," Keroberos clarified for her in English. This wasn't completely true but it was close enough for most purposes. It was definitely far easier to say than trying to explain their real, much more complicated, relationship.

"Familiar?" Gloria stumbled over the word as if it was in a foreign language. This word ran around her brain a couple of times before it finally sunk in. With this creature properly identified, Gloria's concerns were somewhat relieved. Animated plushie toys she had never seen before, but familiars were much more common. With Keroberos safely classified as a familiar Gloria was back on solid footing, or at least more solid footing than she was on before, not that that was saying anything.

Anthony was just as shocked and addled as Gloria was, but without the focus of the yellow guardian's attention on him he wasn't as preoccupied about being attacked. This freed up his mind to consider the familiar floating in front of him. While it wasn't a standard cat, owl, or frog, who was to say what kind of strange creatures they used out in the weird Eastern countries? However, he wasn't about to ask, or indeed do anything which would remind the room of his presence. Being the focus of attention of a strange, new, and possibly dangerous floating creature was low on his "want to do at Hogwarts" list.

"Yeah. So, are you going to put that wand down?" Keroberos challenged again.

Gloria and Keroberos stared at each other in apparent deadlock. Gloria was too out of sorts, and moreover still too worried, to put her wand down. For his part, Keroberos's pride prevented him from backing down and letting this upstart seemingly win the confrontation. This standoff continued for a few seconds until the door to the cabin opened with a whoosh.

Everybody turned to see who was intruding in the awkward standoff. In the open door Kaho stood with her usual gentle calming smile on her face.

"I'm heard a commotion in here. Is everything alright?" Kaho asked. While that was literally true, what had brought Kaho close enough to the door to hear the commotion was her concern about the wave of magic she had felt from Sakura earlier and what it might have meant.

Gloria, seeing an adult with an air of authority, correctly assumed that Kaho was one of the professors. She stammered out, "There's this thing, up there." She vaguely waived at Keroberos with her still outstretched wand.

"There is? What's up there?" Kaho asked patiently.

"That yellow thing. Up there," Gloria said.

"Hmm? Do you mean Keroberos?" Kaho asked.

"Yes," Gloria said.

"Don't worry. Keroberos is very friendly, aren't you," Kaho said.

"You could say that," Keroberos gruffly replied.

Somewhat mollified that an adult, a professor at that, recognized the creature and thought him harmless, Gloria belatedly put her wand away.

"Now then, I'm Professor Mizuki, one of the Muggle Studies professors. I already know Sakura here, but I don't think I've met you two before," Kaho said.

"I'm Anthony Goldstein," Anthony said, introducing himself.

"I'm Gloria Tarnen, from Windsor's Preparatory Academy for Witches," Gloria said with obvious pride in her voice, introducing herself as well.

"Nice to meet you two," Kaho said. "Isn't Windsor's Prep..."

"Look out!" a shout from the hallway interrupted her.

Kaho looked down the hallway and then jumped into the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Two seconds later there was large flash of light through the window accompanied by a large bang and some hissing. This was followed by another bang, another flash of light, and then yet another bang.

Not letting her guard down, Kaho held the door closed for several more seconds. Once there was no more sign of danger she opened the door and stepped out. She turned to her right and scolded, "Fred, George, what have I told you about pranks?"

A pair of voices chorused, "Sorry Professor Mizuki."

"Now, no more fireworks in the train," Kaho said.

Kaho turned back to the three students and the guardian beast still in the cabin. "I need to return to my room. We will be arriving at Hogwarts soon and I need to get ready. You should put your robes on and get ready as well. There won't be any time once we get there for you to get dressed. If you need anything, though, be sure to come and get me."

"Okay," the three students chimed in unison.

With that, reassured that nothing was amiss, Kaho closed the door to the cabin. As Keroberos had abandoned his hiding and was now flying around with Sakura, Kaho didn't worry too much about Sakura's continued usage of the Sakura Cards. Upon further reasoning, Kaho figured that it was probably Keroberos's concern and subsequent scolding of Sakura which had taken him out of hiding earlier and precipitated that confrontation.

For the four left in the cabin, though, there was to be no peace. No sooner had the door closed then it was opened again, this time filled with the profiles of two red-haired twins.

"Hey there. I'm Fred," one said.

"And I'm George," said the other.

"Cool floating doll. Where'd you get it?" Fred asked.

"And more importantly," George said.

"How would you like to buy some of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks?" they finished in chorus, both holding out brightly colored packages for the three younger children.

Sakura, Gloria, and Anthony stood in nonplussed silence for a moment at their sudden appearance. Finally Anthony asked, "Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks?"

"Yeah. Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks. There lots of fun, guaranteed to liven up every party," Fred explained.

"Not to mention even the dullest classroom," George continued.

"Easy to light," Fred said.

"Hard to contain," George said.

"And impossibly fun," Fred said.

"You just saw them at work a second ago," George added.

"But I'm afraid no more demonstrations," Fred continued.

"At least until we get to Hogwarts," George finished.

"Are they dangerous?" Sakura asked.

"Nah, they're great," Fred answered.

"See, barely any damage out here," George said, pointing to the hallway behind the twins. Behind the two twins, the modest evidence of destruction in the hallway was clearly visible despite what George had said.

"Professor Mizuki didn't even bat an eye at them and she's a professor," Fred said.

"Although she is one of the cooler adults," George said.

"Too bad they aren't all like that," Fred added.

"Like that Argus Filch," George agreed.

"So, what do you say?" Fred asked.

"Want some?" George asked, going in for the kill.

"I think I'll pass," Sakura said.

"Okay. How about some Skiving Snackboxes then? Guaranteed to get you out of class," Fred said, easily switching tact.

"We won't tell you how. That'd ruin all the surprise," George followed up.

"But don't worry. It comes with an antidote," Fred reassured them.

"An antidote?" Anthony asked. "I don't think this is a very good idea."

"Oh, why not? We can all use a day off once in a while. I'll take one," Gloria said, getting out her purse.

"That'll be 15 Sickles," Fred declared, holding out a small box. Gloria handed over a gold coin, and took two silver coins and the box from him in return.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Fred said.

"If you need any more, you can find us in the disused bathroom, on the seventh floor of the Gryffindor Tower," George said.

"Ask around and you'll find it no problem. A pleasure to meet you all," Fred concluded.

With the completion of the sale, the twins turned away and let the door close behind them. As the door closed, Sakura heard one of the twins say to the other, "One of these days we'll need to figure out a way to make those pills taste better than..."

The door then shut, leaving the three humans and Keroberos back in relative silence.

Once they were safely away, Gloria sat down heavily on a bench, fidgeting with the strange box she had purchased. The giddiness of the purchase and the curiosity about how it would help her get out of class had driven all thoughts of Keroberos from her mind.

"Why don't you open it so we can see what it is?" Sakura prompted. She was just as curious what this mysterious magical device would be.

With some trepidation Gloria opened the box. Inside it was two strange squares. One was a sickly green, filled with yellow splotches of something throughout it. The other was an even sicker shade of red with bits of brown and black interspersed in it. On the lid of the box was a card which simply said, "Eat red piece before class. Eat green piece when finished. Warning: may cause some discomfort."

"What is it?" Anthony asked.

"I don't know," Gloria answered. "It says I'm supposed to eat them."

"Eat that? I don't think that's a very good idea," Sakura said, holding her stomach in imagined pain.

"It looks a bit suspicious to me," Keroberos agreed.

"So, are you going to try it then?" Anthony asked.

"Maybe later. It's not like there are any classes to skip right now anyway," Gloria said as she put the lid back on the box.

The quartet continued the rest of the journey in animated conversation.

The last leg of the trip passed by much faster for Sakura than its first leg, when her only company had been a worn old book.

* * *

Last Updated: September 8, 2012


	4. 4: Sakura and the Sorting Ceremony

Chapter 4: Sakura and the Sorting Ceremony

The piercing whistle of the Hogwarts Express interjected itself into the middle of all ongoing conversations with its warning that the final stop was just around the next bend. The trip had indeed taken the entire day, as Kaho had told Sakura at the start of the journey, and the sun was rapidly setting in the distance. Already a dim half-moon hung visibly in the sky, and its appearance only brightened as the sunlight around the train disappeared.

After the ringing of the whistle left their collective ears, Gloria stood up and said, "I think that's the signal that we're almost at Hogwarts. We should get our stuff ready."

So saying, she reached above her head and slowly nudged one of her cases closer and closer to the edge of the storage rack until it finally fell down, coming close to crushing her and Sakura's head. She then repeated this process twice more, the operation being a particularly precarious one with her caged owl, who gave a hoot in protest at almost being dashed to the floor.

Anthony likewise edged his small case off the racks above the seats. Unlike Gloria, he stood on the benches to get a better angle at it. Between that and its smaller size, he was able to take it down without incident. It was followed immediately by his owl, who didn't release a single peep of protest at its relatively gentle handling.

Sakura for her part had the easiest time of the three in getting ready. She simply stood on the ground and caught her luggage as Keroberos pushed it down from above.

"Do you hear that?" Gloria asked once everybody had safely retrieved their things. "I'll bet there's a hundred people fighting out there to get in queue."

Sakura cocked her ear to the door and was forced to agree. It did sound like a stampede of children were bustling and jostling for key positions by the door. Sakura didn't understand the point of the big rush, as the train was nice and comfortable in her opinion.

"Why are they in such a hurry? We haven't even stopped yet," Sakura asked.

"Let's sit back down. It'll be a bit anyway before we arrive anyway," Anthony suggested.

"Good idea," Sakura agreed.

"It was fun talking to you both. We should get together again after classes start," Anthony said.

"We should, but it might be tough if we get sent to different houses. Oh, which house do you think you're going to go to, anyway?" Gloria asked.

"House?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, your house," Gloria repeated.

"What do you mean? Do we all get our own house?" Sakura asked again, her mind retrieving pictures of her home back in Japan. She had known the United Kingdom had more space than Tokyo, but didn't think it had that much more space.

"You know, your house. I thought all the schools used them. It's kind of the group of students you stay with, take classes with, and everything. I'm hoping for Ravenclaw myself," Anthony explained.

"Ravenclaw? Why do you want to join a bunch of useless bookworms like them?" Gloria challenged.

"Bookworms? They're the smartest and best wizards in the whole school," Anthony retorted.

"Best wizards? What are you talking about? They are just a bunch of effete scholars." Gloria said. She had heard her brother use that insult before but none of the people present in the room, including herself, had any idea what it meant.

"If Ravenclaw is so bad then which house do you want to get into?" Anthony challenged back.

"Oh, that's easy. Slytherin of course. They've won the house cup for as long as anybody can remember. That just proves they're the best," Gloria replied. "According to my brother they're the most respected house in Hogwarts, and all of their graduates are the most powerful witches in the world, too. He's a fourth year Slytherin and I'm always hearing about the fun stuff they get to do."

"What? Slytherin? Everybody knows Slytherin's full of a bunch of good-for-nothings. They even say that You-Know-Who graduated from there," Anthony countered.

"Who?" Sakura asked.

Sakura's question went both unheard and unanswered as Anthony continued on saying, "Actually, speaking of You-Know-Who, I heard that kid who beat him is going to be in our year. You know, The Boy Who Lived. What was his name? He had that scar on his forehead."

"His name's Harry Potter," Gloria said. "My brother was so jealous when he heard I was going to be in the same year as the famous wizard who beat You-Know-Who. If I ended up in the same house as him, I think he'd die of jealousy."

Anthony was on the verge of saying something when the train gave a sudden lurch, throwing Keroberos into the cushion he had been standing on and making the three human passengers very happy to have been sitting down. This was followed by a voice echoing through the train, "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

The three of them looked at each other. Sakura asked, "Did that just say to leave everything here?"

"I think so," Anthony replied.

"So I guess we should leave all our stuff here then?" Gloria asked more than said.

The three of them looked at each other one more time, clearly skeptical that they would ever see their possessions again. This continued for a few seconds until Sakura had an idea.

"Can you watch my things, Kero-chan?" Sakura asked.

"But I want to go with you, Sakura," Keroberos pouted.

"I'm sure everything will be alright. I just need you to make sure that my bags don't disappear. Especially the... you know," Sakura said.

"Alright," Keroberos acceded.

"Oh? Can you watch my stuff too... Kerochan?" Gloria asked, stumbling over the unfamiliar name.

"My name is Keroberos, not Kerochan," Keroberos said to Gloria.

"Mine too?" Anthony joined in, not paying any attention to what the floating plushie doll was saying.

Keroberos looked to be on the verge of protesting until Sakura looked at him with expectant eyes. He finally said, "Fine, fine."

"Thank you, Kero-chan," Sakura beamed, taking the wind out of what Keroberos had been on the verge of saying.

Moments after they had settled the question about what to do with their luggage, the train slowed and then came to a stop. Outside the cabin door, Sakura could hear the scuffling of moving feet. After steeling their nerves for a moment, the three of them left the room to join the random shuffling of the entire student body of Hogwarts. Fortunately, their hesitation made them among the second half of students to leave, so there was much less elbowing and shoving to get to the exit.

A blast of fresh September air hit Sakura's face just as she left the train. The breeze was a relief after spending the whole day in the stale confines of the Hogwarts Express. As she looked around in the moonlit darkness surrounding the train, she saw what appeared to be several groups of students milling about in confusion. In addition to their random milling, she also saw several groups of taller students walking to the left away from the train. Her gaze followed their path, and then suddenly froze.

To the left there were a set of carriages which might have been taken straight out of the play of "Sleeping Beauty" her class had performed so recently. However, rather than being drawn by a noble white stallion fit for a prince, instead harnessed in front of each cart was a grotesque parody of a steed.

The thestrals vaguely resembled horses, but were of a sickly pallor which practically screamed death. The moonlight streamed over the mounts, glinting off their skin and making them almost appear skeletal to Sakura's eyes. This image was compounded by the harsh jagged heads on the front of the beasts which looked like some cross between a dinosaur and a skeleton. Contrasting this bony motif were the large leathery wings on the back of the animals which reminded Sakura more of blood sucking vampire bats than undead skeletons.

Sakura winced away from the sight and moved behind Anthony, putting him as something of a human shield between her and the ghostly horse-like figures.

"What's wrong?" Anthony asked in response to her clinging to him.

"A..asoko de," Sakura stammered, pointing at the carriages. In her anxiety, she didn't even notice she had slipped back into her native Japanese.

"Huh?" Gloria asked.

"A.. over there," Sakura tried again, still pointing at the carriages.

Gloria and Anthony both turned to face the carriages and their unusual source of power. "Oh? What's wrong? They're just some carriages. Haven't you ever seen one before?" Gloria asked.

"Yurei, Ahh... things there," Sakura said, not knowing the English words for "ghosts".

"Yurei? What's a yurei?" Anthony asked.

"Ehh... things of dead things behind," Sakura tried to explain. Her nervousness did little to help her intelligibility.

"Hmm? You mean like coffins?" Gloria guessed. "There's nothing like that there. It's just a bunch of carriages."

"No, there, right in front of them," Sakura insisted.

"I don't see anything, do you?" Anthony asked.

Gloria stared at the carriages, re-examining them. As she stared, a pair of upperclassmen walked up to the carriages and casually climbed into them. She confirmed, "Nothing. Just a bunch of floating ropes."

Far from calming Sakura, this just made her even more sure that she was staring at a bunch of ghosts, and she clung to Anthony even more tightly. Any further reflection was interrupted as she heard a loud rumbling voice shouting out, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Looking over to the source of the voice, Sakura saw a giant of a man. Even by Western standards he was absolutely huge. He was holding a bobbing light above his head as if it were some wisp with which he could lure all the first year students to follow him. More importantly, he was heading to the right, away from the ghostly carriages Sakura had been staring at, so it took little to convince her to follow him.

The mass of first year students, obedient to the directions of authority, started following the guide through the darkness. There was a brief traffic jam shortly after they started moving as the students were forced into a single line by the steep and narrow path they were following. The half-moon in the sky illuminated the way so Sakura didn't get lost, but neither it nor the stars all around her were bright enough to let her make out anything to the sides of the path. The relative darkness also caused her to stumble more than once on the uneven ground.

Half-way up the path the line of students slowed again, which caused Sakura to almost bump into Anthony. Gloria, just behind her, wasn't so lucky and did run into Sakura's back. There was some general murmuring asking about what was going on before the line continued forward, albeit at a slower rate. From in front of her, Sakura heard a rolling "Oohhh." This approached her, or more precisely she approached the threshold of this sound wave. Finally, at the cusp of the sound, she followed Anthony around a curve in the path and felt more than saw it.

Hogwarts.

It was a massive castle which looked as old as Scotland itself. It had a dazzling number of towers, each capped with a massive spire, and the sparkles of light in the windows looked like so many stars had been plucked from the sky and glued to the sides of the walls.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the giant man shouted out. This shook Sakura out of her awe-induced reverie. She glanced around in confusion until she noticed the outline of the man in the darkness pointing down to a lake below. Just visible from their height was a fleet of small boats along the water's edge. The children towards the front of the crowd were already making their way down and staking out their claim. Some of the more ambitious of these children were getting their feet wet in the process.

Walking with care, Sakura, Anthony, and Gloria picked they way to the water's edge and entered a still unoccupied boat.

"Everyone in? Right then - FORWARD!" the man commanded.

With that, the boats glided forward across the glass-still water, acting much like soldiers who had been given the order to march. Also, like so many soldiers, and unlike the unpredictable aquatic vessels they actually were, the boats moved in complete coordination and unison. It put to shame the jerking motions of the Hogwarts Express, where one car would be jerked forward only in turn to jerk backwards as it strained to pull the car behind it.

Sakura felt the suffocating excitement and energy which accompanies a brand new adventure. It seemed that this same tension had afflicted everybody else as the trip went by in almost complete silence. Part way through the journey a splash echoed from the left of the boats, but by the time Sakura had turned to look the only thing she saw was a reflection of the moon on rippling water.

"Heads down!" the man bellowed, causing all the students to duck just in time to sneak under a mass of ivy covering a hole in the cliff.

In short-order, Sakura's boat arrived at the water's edge, letting her take a small leap onto the sandy shore. She was followed by Anthony and Gloria. They took a few steps away from the eerily still water until they were firmly on a pebble path. Following the rest of the students along the underground trail, Sakura slowly passed through a tunnel before eventually reaching a grassy hill in the shadow of the castle.

The students followed the giant of a man up the hill, forming more of a blob of sheep as they did so than the orderly line of students the path had forced them into earlier. They came to a stop at the top of a set of stone stairs, with the man pausing in front of a massive oak double door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got your toad?" the man asked.

There was a murmured response to this question which Sakura couldn't hear. The huge man seemed to be satisfied with it, though, because he turned around and used his gigantic fist to knock on the door three times. With the same coordination the boats had shown earlier, the two wooden doors silently swung open at his command, revealing a tall witch with graying hair. Her eyes gleamed with a glint of intelligence and hardness underneath her worn and stern face.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," the tall man said, introducing the motley bunch of children.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here," Professor McGonagall said.

The huge man, apparently Hagrid by name, gave a perfunctory nod and strode away in the way only the very tall can. After a second's pause to let Hagrid get a decent head start, Professor McGonagall easily opened the heavy oak doors wide revealing the entrance hall of Hogwarts Castle in all its glory.

Sakura was immediately overwhelmed by the immensity of what confronted her. She had thought that Reed Manor was enormous, which in fact it was, but even it couldn't compare to the enormity that was Hogwarts Castle. Its sheer size was something which simply couldn't be imagined in the crowded city of Tokyo. On the floor, on the walls, draped from the ceiling, and even just hovering in midair were heavy cloth tapestries representing every color of the rainbow and offsetting all the gray rock surrounding her. The rocks in turn were grays of all different shades and textures, having almost as much variety as the multitude of tapestries. Spaced around the room were numerous lit torches, bathing the entire expanse in a flickering warm light.

"Come children, this way," Professor McGonagall said. She turned around and set a smart pace forward towards a magnificent stone staircase at the other end of the room. The students could only gawk for a few seconds before they had to hurry to catch up with the green clothed witch.

Rather than proceeding up the stairs, she instead led the children to a small empty chamber off to the side of the hall. The small room forced all of the children to crowd together, which was only exacerbated by the fact that none of the children wanted to miss anything that Professor McGonagall said and so crowded near her.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," was what she said. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because..."

What followed was an abbreviated explanation of the Hogwarts house system. For the most part it matched what Anthony had explained earlier, although Professor McGonagall provided more information about what it all meant than Anthony had. Professor McGonagall eventually finished her introductory speech by suggesting all the students take the opportunity to smarten up their appearance as much as they could and then to wait quietly for the sorting ceremony itself to begin. She then sharply turned around and left the room.

With the departure of the last authority figure, bereft of any other direction, the students returned to acting like sheep, gathering in a vaguely circular shape and randomly wandering around. The only pattern of their movements was their tendency to clump together based on the brief friendships made on the train and boat rides earlier. Sakura turned around and moved the couple of steps necessary to put her next to Gloria.

"Do you know how we're going to be sorted?" Sakura whispered.

"Hmm?" Gloria asked.

"Do you know how we are going to be sorted?" Sakura asked again.

Before Gloria could reply, Sakura heard something and turned around. What she saw caused her to reflexively duck and scream. She was quickly joined in by a couple of other students who added their cries to her own.

From the back wall of the room about 20 ghosts streamed in. Sakura could see them as they glided through the air in a translucent gray shimmer. They were arguing something amongst themselves but Sakura was too shocked and scared to pay it any mind.

Abruptly one of them stared down at the students and shouted out. Sakura's panic stricken mind understood this to be some sort of challenge which would inevitably be a prelude to them dragging her into some unimaginably horrible other world. She tried to duck down even further.

Luckily before they could act upon their threat, Professor McGonagall returned and sharply yelled at them, "Move along now. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Slowly, reluctantly, the shades drew back from whence they came, leaving the room as un-possessed as it had started.

"Now, form a line and follow me," Professor McGonagall ordered.

Sakura didn't need to be told twice and hopped to the front of the line to be as far from the ghosts, not to mention be as close to the one who banished them, as possible. Most of the students lined up behind her as she followed Professor McGonagall out of the small room, across the hallway, through a set of magnificent double doors, and into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was appropriately named. It was a magnificent room, dwarfing the already magnificent entrance to the castle. Four long tables lined the whole room, two to the left and two to the right. Each of these tables was covered with golden cutlery, plates, and goblets. Surrounding each table was a mass of students in full uniform, complete with colored ties. The table on the far left had students with green and gray ties, with the next table having red and orange ones. The first table on the right had a group of students with blue and gray ties, followed finally by a group of yellow and black ones. Shining down from above were the moon and stars in the sky, as Sakura could see no ceiling to the room in which they had entered.

Even these stars were hard to make out, though, washed out by the thousands of candles hovering above the tables. They cast a warm glow across the whole room and were so plentiful that there was not a single shadow was in sight. Above the candles were a crowd of ghosts. The moment Sakura noticed them she bit her tongue and brought her gaze back earthwards.

Once all the first year students were in the room, Professor McGonagall turned them to face the rest of the children in the room, who had started clapping from their respective tables. She then walked out in front of the students to a stool in the center of the room and placed a worn brown pointed hat on top of it.

Everybody stared at the hat in an expectant silence. After a few seconds of nothing happening, which made Sakura worry that something was going horribly wrong, a large crack appeared near the brim of the hat and it began to sing.

Sakura had a hard time following the song. It included many odd words, and the more familiar words were pronounced in such a strange way as to make them incomprehensible. As far as she could tell it thought it was a pretty hat and wanted to eat itself and then examine all of their heads, maybe because it thought they might be ill. It also said something about having a brave heart and head which she didn't understand either.

When the song was over the room burst into applause. Sakura politely joined in.

Professor McGonagall then stepped forward again, pulling a long scroll out of her pocket. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."

Sakura was relieved when the first name of "Abbott, Hannah!" was announced. While she thought she understood what was going on, she preferred to watch somebody else go first, just in case.

Hannah, on the other hand, looked like she was about to be sentenced to jail for some crime she knew everybody knew she did. She looked around for a friendly face, but instead only saw hundreds of students staring expectantly at her. With some hesitation, and more than a little fear, she approached the stool, sat down on it, and put the hat on her head.

There was a brief pause, after which the hat announced, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The students of the Hufflepuff house, sitting around the table with their yellow and black ties, erupted in cheers at this declaration. At the same time, the plain tie around Hannah's neck changed colors to match the ties of the children around that table, and the blank insignia on her uniform's pocket took on the stylized emblem of a badger.

Hannah herself had a look on her face like her best friend in the world had just handed her a beetle in a playground; she wasn't sure if she should be happy, disappointed, or scared. Judging from the reaction, she decided she should be happy.

Properly sorted, Hannah stood up from the stool and with a smile on her face walked over to join the Hufflepuff table.

Not waiting for the cheering to die down, Professor McGonagall announced the next name, "Bones, Susan!"

This quickly silenced everybody as they strained their collective ears in eager anticipation of discovering where this girl would spend the next seven years of school. Much like Hannah before her, she had a look containing an equal amount of anticipation and despair. Following Hannah's footsteps, she approached the well worn stool, sat down, and put the hat upon her head.

After an equally brief pause the hat announced, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Susan visibly released her held breath as her tie and insignia changed much like Hannah's had before her. She then followed Hannah to the Hufflepuff table, amidst the cheering from her newly declared house.

Again, without a pause, Professor McGonagall announced, "Boot, Terry!"

So the ceremony went. "RAVENCLAW!", "RAVENCLAW!", "GRIFFINDOR!", "SLYTHERIN!" The hat would be donned, the declaration made, the next person announced, and the ceremony continued.

"Goldstein, Anthony!" Professor McGonagall announced.

Despite knowing his turn was approaching, Anthony still gave a small jump when his name was called. Settling himself as much as he could, he walked forward to the stool and hat with all the confidence that could be expected for a boy facing an event which he knew would define his next seven years, if not his entire life.

As he sat down, Sakura could see the trepidation on Anthony's face. She knew how much this decision meant to him and vicariously felt his nervousness. Interminable moments passed by. Sakura unconsciously held her breath and wondered if all of the previous sortings had taken this long. Then, after an eternity which must only have been a couple of seconds, the hat pronounced its verdict.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Sakura let out the breath she had been holding at the same time Anthony did, relief flowing through her that he had gotten into the house he had wanted. She joined in the general applause the Ravenclaw table was putting out. This drew a few looks from the first years immediately adjacent to her.

Sakura watched Anthony saunter over to the table with an extra spring in his step as if quite literally a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. She was so happy for him that she didn't notice the next declaration of Henry Gunther and his subsequent placement into Gryffindor.

"Kinomoto, Sakura!" Professor McGonagall announced. Sakura gave a start when she realized that these badly accented words were supposed to be her. Much like Anthony and Gloria, Professor McGonagall had mispronounced her name. In addition to emphasizing the "ku" like the two children had, she had also pronounced Sakura's surname with a soft "i" sound as well. If it weren't for the fact that Sakura knew her turn would be coming, it would have been easy to miss the announcement.

She woodenly walked forward to the stool in the center of the room, picked up the hat, and sat down. She took a breath to calm herself and put the hat upon her head. It came down over her eyes and all she could see was a musky brownness.

Immediately she got the feeling like she was being watched. More than that, she felt like she was being exposed. It was as if she had been taking a bath and found a camera pointing at her and clicking. No. More like a herd of cameras, pointing at her from every angle and exposing every little facet of her being. The feeling was quite uncomfortable.

Sakura was distracted from this sensation when she heard a small voice in her ear say, "Hmm... I see power. Great power, and a great legacy. Slytherin would be delighted to have both, but not in a witch with your impure bloodline. I see courage within you as well, but the thirst for thrills and glory is not what drives you. Indeed the reason you have come here is to learn and to improve yourself, a noble goal worthy of RAVENCLAW!"

The last was shouted out to the entire hall. Although it was loud enough to be heard across the entire room, as Sakura herself knew from the previous sortings, it still managed to be a tolerable to her ear despite the fact the hat surrounded her head. Her judgment pronounced, Sakura wasted no time in removing the hat from her head and standing up. Immediately the sensation of being exposed disappeared and she felt much better.

Despite the relative simplicity of what she had done, ignoring the discomfort associated with it, Sakura still felt overwhelmed by the entire event and found it difficult to remember what she was supposed to do next. In a daze she followed the applause emanating from a nearby table.

Anthony caught her eye as she was walking towards the Ravenclaw table. Happy to see the familiar face, Sakura headed over and took a seat next to him. Behind her, Sakura heard Professor McGonagall announce, "Li, Su!"

Her own sorting out of the way, the rest of the sorting ceremony strangely passed by both faster and slower. It was faster because Sakura was no longer nervous about her upcoming judgment and what might happen, and it was slower for the exact same reason. It seemed like an endless stream of "RAVENCLAW!" "SLYTHERIN!" "GRYFFINDOR!" "SLYTHERIN!" "HUFFLEPUFF!" "RAVENCLAW!" flowed one after the other.

There was a noticeable amount of chatter when a "Potter, Harry!" was called. The name sounded vaguely familiar to Sakura, although she couldn't remember why. She tried to ask Anthony what was going on but he shushed her as he joined the rest of the crowd, leaning forward to hear the proclamation of "GRYFFINDOR!" At that announcement the Gryffindor table erupted in a cheer which made all of the previous celebration sound muted at best.

Sakura had hoped to learn what all the fuss had been about in the relative quiet which followed Harry's placement, but once the decision had been made Anthony seemed despondent and didn't want to talk about it anymore, so Sakura never did find out why everybody had been so interested in what had just happened.

The only remaining high point of the sorting ceremony for Sakura was when "Tarnen, Gloria!" had been called. To Sakura's disappointment, she was sorted to Gryffindor without too much delay. She had been secretly hoping Gloria would join her and Anthony in Ravenclaw, even if Gloria had disparaged the house earlier. Barring that, she had hoped that Gloria would have at least gotten into Slytherin as she had said she had wanted to.

If Gloria was disappointed in the decision of Gryffindor, though, Sakura didn't see any sign of it. Indeed, Gloria seemed quite delighted at the decision. Sakura was so lost in thought for Gloria's sake that she barely heard Lisa Turpin's subsequent placement into Ravenclaw.

The remaining dozen or so students were quickly sorted, with the final student named "Zabini, Blaise!" eventually finding his way into Slytherin. When he had taken his seat, Professor McGonagall rolled her scroll back up and picked up the Sorting Hat as well.

"Welcome!" shouted a tall bearded wizard in front of the room, grabbing Sakura's attention. Given his appearance, and that he had taken control of the whole room with his voice alone, Sakura assumed that he was Professor Dumbledore whom Kaho had described earlier at one of the discussions about Hogwarts. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin the banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

As Professor Dumbledore spoke, Sakura felt the force of magic emanate from the wizard, whereupon it coalesced on top of the plates spread throughout the room, revealing a large banquet on each table. Professor Dumbledore felt vaguely like Kaho and Syaoran, and Sakura definitely felt the same attraction towards him that she felt towards those two as well.

While the students clapped and cheered to these words, and more importantly for the food, Anthony took the chance the masking noise provided to lean towards Sakura and ask, "Who is that?"

"I think he's Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of the school," Sakura replied.

"So he's the one in charge of everything?" Anthony asked, reaching over for a pork chop as he talked.

"I think so," Sakura said, picking out some fish for herself.

Sakura had gathered all of her food, finished all of her preparations for the meal she was about to enjoy, and was on the verge of eating when something caused her to freeze.

Looking up she saw the ghost of a tall young woman wearing what appeared to be, excepting the lack of a veil, clothes of mourning. She wore a long dark dress and had a shawl draped over her shoulders. The ghostly woman was slowly descending from above and was, in Sakura's mind at least, coming straight at her. Her blood felt like it had turned to ice.

Around her many of the older students, some as old as fourth years, were muttering amongst themselves.

"Who is that?"

"Is that Gray Lady?"

"She's actually really nice, and smart too. She helped me with that potions paper we had last year, remember?"

"I've never seen her outside of the library."

"I guess she sometimes comes out at important times like this."

"So she's the Ravenclaw house ghost?"

"I'll bet you she doesn't stay more than 10 minutes."

"It all makes sense really."

It wasn't just Sakura's imagination that Gray Lady was floating straight towards her, the ghost actually was floating straight towards her. Completely ignoring the table, the floor, and small plate of food in front of Sakura, Gray Lady came to a rest at eye-level with the terrified girl. She then leaned forward to stare at Sakura, coming so close that wisps of her long hair occasionally blew through Sakura's head. Each wisp of hair left behind a trace of supernatural coldness where it had touched her.

Sakura fear only increased when the ghost spoke to her. "You seem... different than the others. You remind me of that wizard. Interesting. Very interesting. Oh, but I frighten you. I will leave you to your supper. If you want to find me later, I can be found in the castle library. Enjoy your time in Ravenclaw."

With this Gray Lady floated back up and across the table, making her way down its length before stopping at another new Ravenclaw student. Sakura's immediate cause of concern now out of sight, she was able to exhale the breath she had been holding. When she next looked up the ghostly visage of Gray Lady had been replaced by the faces of the seven students in immediate ear-shot crowding around her. Sakura suddenly realized that her appetite had vanished.

"That was strange. What do you think she meant that you were different?" Anthony leaned in and asked.

"Hoe? I don't know," Sakura said, being as non-committal as possible. She didn't like being the center of attention. Sakura suddenly found her food fascinating and was picking at it as if the secrets to the universe could be found within a pile of mashed potatoes. Sensing her reticence, Anthony didn't pursue the question

Sakura snuck a glance around the room to find something else to discuss. In the front of the room she saw Kaho eating her meal in her usual dignified manner. She was smiling and talking to a short wizard who stood on his chair to reach his plate.

"Is that Professor Flitwick talking to Professor Mizuki?" Sakura asked.

"Who?" Anthony asked in return.

"Professor Mizuki, from the train, remember? There is a really small man up there in front talking to her. Is that Professor Flitwick?" Sakura asked, gesturing to the teacher's platform at the front of the room.

"I don't know. I don't know any of the professors yet," Anthony admitted, before clarifying, "except for Professor Mizuki that is."

"You mean that short wizard? Yes, that's Professor Flitwick. He's the Charms professor. He's also the head of our house, you know," a girl to the other side of Sakura answered.

"How do you know all these people anyway," Anthony asked Sakura.

"Professor Mizuki told me a little about the school in the last few weeks and mentioned a few of the other professors as well," Sakura said.

"So you knew her before coming to Hogwarts?" Anthony asked.

"Yes," Sakura confirmed.

"It must be really convenient to know one of the professors," Anthony said.

"Yes, Professor Mizuki is very nice," Sakura said.

Neither person knew how to continue the conversation from there so it quickly faltered, leaving the table in silence again while everybody contemplated what Gray Lady had said earlier.

The rest of the meal proceeded slowly. Sakura had no apatite after her recent brush with terror, not to mention her subsequent being the center of attention, so she only picked at her food. The rest of the people around her were much more relaxed and ate with gusto. The question of what Gray Lady had meant earlier didn't come up again, though, as nobody wanted to risk offending Sakura by asking, especially as the girl in question probably didn't know any more about it than any of them did.

When dessert finally appeared, replacing the main courses, Sakura did retain the forethought to wrap up and pocket a few cookies for Keroberos later. If anybody noticed her, they were too busy squirreling away snacks themselves to say anything.

Finally, Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again, causing the hall to fall silent. "Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well. I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

This prompted a little sporadic laughter, but the majority of the room stayed deathly silent. Sakura for her part didn't understand what was so funny about dying, especially dying a painful death.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Professor Dumbledore finished. Thus saying, he pulled out and waved his wand, causing a long golden ribbon to fly out and form some letters in the air.

"Everybody pick their favorite tune, and off we go!" Professor Dumbledore declared.

What they were singing was a mystery to Sakura. While her English had drastically improved in the past few months, she wasn't able to decipher any meaning at all from the cacophony of noise which surrounded her. Furthermore, her view of the floating lyrics was blocked by a rather tall boy so she only could see bits and pieces of it. She didn't really consider this a bad thing, though, as she didn't feel inclined to add her voice to the mayhem surrounding her anyway.

The song, if it could be called that, ended with the two red-headed twins Sakura had met earlier in the Hogwarts Express singing what sounded like a funeral dirge. Once they had completed their rendition of the school song, Professor Dumbledore ended the meal by announcing, "Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

All the students rose to their feet and turned in the direction of their respective dorms. At the prompting of one of the older students, Sakura and Anthony turned and followed a dark-haired Ravenclaw prefect named Thomas out the back of the room. The group proceeded with a semblance of order down a hallway. Above their heads floated several ghosts, notably a boisterous fat friar, talking about the procession below them. A few of the older students even chatted and bantered with the ghosts. For her part, Sakura was keeping her eyes down and doing her best to convince herself the ghosts didn't really exist. The fact that she could hear the talking from the air above made her desperate attempts of denial especially difficult.

At the end of the hallway, the Ravenclaw and the Hufflepuff students split apart, with the Ravenclaws turning left and the Hufflepuffs turning right. Sakura risked a look up and was relieved to see that many of the ghosts had lost interest and wandered off. Instead, lining both sides of the corridor were several portraits. Sakura swore she saw some of them moving out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look at them they stood picture still.

They reached the end of the hallway and climbed up a spiral staircase. The trip up was made difficult by the sheer number of students trying to climb at once, but several of the older students had graciously let the younger ones pass first, which reduced the bottleneck substantially from what it could have been. This was a courtesy that had been passed down from year to year in Ravenclaw. It would be a miserable experience to be locked out of your room on your very first day at Hogwarts, and hearing the first puzzle which protected the room and its corresponding answer would grant the new students at least a fighting chance of getting into the dorm room on their own when next they had to.

At the top of the staircase was a large door, completely bereft of doorknob or keyhole. The only thing in the center of the door was a bronze eagle-shaped knocker. Sakura briefly wondered how they were supposed to open the door when Thomas gave the knocker a sharp rap.

"If 'con' is the opposite of 'pro', what is the opposite of 'progress'?" the knocker asked, causing Sakura to jump and give a little yelp of surprise.

The students near her turned and stared at her for a second. She had almost knocked the children behind her back down the stairs, but they had managed to keep their balance. Anthony was the only one who said anything, though, asking, "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, that it just scared me," Sakura said. A few nearby students rolled their eyes. Muggle-borns.

Notwithstanding the interruption, Thomas answered, "Regress."

The door quickly pulled open at this answer, revealing the Ravenclaw common room in all its splendor. The circular room was incredibly open and airy, with wide open spaces only broken up by a couple of terraced balconies. Adding to this feeling of openness was the blue and gray motif surrounding the room, vaguely reminiscent of the open sky. Huge silk drapes of blue and gray hung in front of the large arched windows which let in the view of the magnificent moon and stars above. The walls were also covered with a giant blue and gray mural of flowers and animals, mostly birds. The flowers occasionally had a splash of yellow or red in them, but this color somehow managed to accent both the flowers as well as the blues and grays surrounding them without ruining the overall theme of the mural. Completing the look of the room was the high domed ceiling covered with stars that gave the impression that, much like the Great Hall, the tower had no ceiling and opened up to the sky above. However, unlike the Great Hall, these stars were much more mundane spots of paint painted directly on the ceiling.

As they walked into the dormitory, Sakura turned to one of the older students beside her and asked, "What was that question just now?"

The blond-haired boy beside her explained, "You need to answer a riddle to get into Ravenclaw Tower or the door won't open for you. It looks like the knocker is back to word puzzles."

"Word puzzles?" Sakura asked, suddenly worried. Her grasp of English was as good as anybody's she knew from Japan, but it wasn't good enough to answer tricky questions about the language.

Another boy beside them with a sandy-hair said, "Yeah, word puzzles. Bloody hell. I hate when it decides to do those."

A black-haired girl next to him said, "It could be worse. It could be on those maths problems again. I had to carry around extra quills and parchment for months last year just to get some of those. Honestly, who can figure out big sums like that in their head?"

"You think that's bad?" A much older brown-haired boy asked, joining in the conversation. "It got on a magical plants stint one year. We practically had to memorize every one of the entries in 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' to even have a chance of answering its riddle. To this day I still remember that aconite can be used to scare off werewolves."

The black-haired girl said, "That's not so bad. We need to learn it all before taking the O.W.L.s anyway, right?"

"Not in your first year!" the boy retorted, a mixture of exasperation and incredulity coloring his voice.

"Oh," the girl responded.

"Relax will you Jeremy, it wasn't that bad. It got us a good head start for year two anyway, right?" another older girl, with long red hair, said to the older boy.

A smirk came to Jeremy's face and he said, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I can still remember the look on Professor Sprout's face. It almost made it worth it. She must have thought we were all geniuses or something."

Thomas's voice cut through the conversation at the same time as his waving hand drew everybody's attention. "This way, first years. Your rooms are over here."

Sakura split away from the older students, who were still reminiscing about years gone by, and caught up to Anthony. As she walked with the rest of the first year students, following the prefect through the common room to a door on the opposite side of it, Sakura noticed that numerous tables, chairs, bookcases, and a stark white marble statue of a woman also surrounded the room. She hadn't noticed them at first, as her eyes had naturally been drawn upward by the tall room's decor.

The prefect then led the first year students up another staircase to a landing along the side of the room. He turned around and announced behind him, "This is where the first years' rooms are; boys on the right, girls on the left."

He then pushed open the door, revealing a lounge. It was decorated in a manner similar to the main common area, although much smaller and less well furnished. Bookcases and a couple of chairs lined its sides, and its high ceiling was painted with stars like the room they had just left. On the opposite side of the entrance was a lit fireplace, bathing the room in a warm light. There were some doors on both sides of the fireplace, symmetrically placed such that the fire could have been a mirror reflecting the two sides against each other.

"I guess this is good night then. See you tomorrow," Anthony said to Sakura before turning to a door on the right.

"Good night," Sakura responded before opening one of the doors on the left at random.

Sakura pushed open the door, wondering if this was the correct one. The answer was immediately obvious to her as she saw a very bored Keroberos sitting on a tall dresser in the room. She took a moment at the entrance of the door to view the room which would house her for the year.

The room was large, but not excessively so, at least as compared to the ridiculously large hallways and the Great Hall. Contained inside were beds in the four corners of the square shaped room. The head of each bed was pointed directly at the corner which left the foot and the chest at its end pointed straight into the center of the room. On one side of each bed there was a cabinet and desk, while on the other side there was a large dresser. On top of two of these dressers were two bird cages, one containing a silver-gray owl and the other containing a dark brown owl. In addition to the two birds, on a third dresser sat Keroberos, the bored, and now somewhat upset at being ignored, guardian beast. Keroberos floated up in the air and then started floating down towards Sakura.

"I brought some snacks for you, Kero-chan," Sakura announced, interrupting any sort of interjection or protest that Keroberos might have raised.

"Yay!" Keroberos called out, his frustration immediately vanishing in the face of promised treats. He raced through the air at Sakura and snatched up the offered sweets.

It was to the comic sight of a plushie flying in midair carrying a cookie twice as large as it was that Sakura's first roommate walked in. She stood slightly taller than Sakura and had long blonde hair which fell in curls around her head.

"Why, hello," the girl said, with far less surprise than could have been expected given the strange situation she had walked into. "What do we have here?"

"Hello, I'm Sakura, and this is Keroberos," Sakura said.

"This flying cookie is called Keroberos?" the girl asked.

"Murmph," Keroberos mumbled through a mouthful of cookie. Swallowing hard he poked his head above the large bite marks in the top of his snack. "No, I'm the Guardian Beast Keroberos. I'm her familiar, sort of."

"I see. Well I guess that would make more sense," the girl said. "My name is Lisa. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you too," Sakura returned.

"So Keroberos is your familiar? I thought they only allowed owls, frogs, and cats here. What are you?" Lisa asked.

"It's complicated, and I got permission," Keroberos answered.

"I see," Lisa said, and hesitated. Indecision and worry played across her face for a couple of seconds, before she started saying, "You should be careful. My father always said..."

What Lisa's father always said would remain a mystery as she was bumped forward when the door behind her opened.

"Is this the right room? I'm confused where we're supposed to go," the new visitor said. Another girl had poked her head around the half open door. She had short red hair and several freckles on her face. Waves of timidity and self-consciousness seemed to roll off of her body.

"Please do excuse me. I do not know if this is your room or not, but come in, come in. Maybe you will see something you recognize, like how I saw Cannon up there," Lisa suggested, moving to the side.

The red-haired girl came in with one other girl following behind. The new girl was slightly plumper than the red-haired girl and had short brown hair and a thick pair of glasses on her face.

"Umm, I'm Deborah," the first girl hesitantly said a second before recognizing one of the owls in the room. "Footsy! There you are!"

"Hello, I'm Linda," the second girl declared. A meowing from under one of the beds caught their attention before the black cat darted out from under it. "And there's my Alphred too. See Deborah, I told you they would room us together, I'm sure that..."

"What is that?" Deborah asked, pointing at Keroberos and cutting Linda cut off. "It's so cute!"

"You mean Kero-chan?" Sakura asked.

"Kerochan? What's a Kerochan?" Deborah asked. The formerly shy girl had already approached Keroberos and, heedless of the risk of accosting a strange magical creature, grabbed the guardian beast in a gigantic bear-hug.

"Hurk," Keroberos tried to answer.

"I believe that creature is Keroberos, a Kerochan apparently," Lisa answered, pointing at the enveloped plushie guardian beast.

"It is?" Deborah asked. If anything Deborah's affection for this cuddly thing only increased with this explanation.

Sakura moved to rescue Keroberos when the door opened again, knocking into Linda who was still standing near the doorway.

"Excuse me. My name is Su. Su Li. Is this the right room for me?" a girl hesitantly asked from the doorway. She had straight black hair and was obviously of East Asian descent, although her accent suggested she had been born in the United Kingdom.

"I don't think so. I think we have everybody accounted for in here," Lisa said.

"You're just so cute aren't you? Aren't you?" Deborah said, as she continued to squeeze the life out of Keroberos.

"Sorry. You'd think they'd figure out a better system than just making us guess where we are. I'll try another room, then," Su said, and then closed the door behind her.

"Guh," Keroberos tried to gasp out from within Deborah's grasp, with limited success.

The door opened again, again knocking into Linda, who was finally forced to move out of the entrance, and again revealing another girl looking around in confusion. She asked, "Do any of you know how we're supposed to find out which room we're in?"

"Hoe..." Sakura lamented at the confused scene all around her.

Eventually the chaos surrounding the move-in process started to settle down. The latest girl to enter figured out the correct room to go to, and Sakura had managed to rescue Keroberos from Deborah's grasp without needing to resort to a crowbar. After a semblance of order had been restored, some basic introductions of the four humans proceeded. Throughout this process it seemed like Deborah was on the verge of glomping onto Keroberos a second time.

Following this was the introduction of the four familiars, or familiar-like creatures in the case of Keroberos. Their introductions went as smoothly as the introductions of the humans did. Although each of the familiars was named in turn, Keroberos was by far the highlight of this round. His ability to talk and the fact that none of Sakura's new roommates had ever seen anything like him before guaranteed Keroberos the proverbial spotlight.

The rest of the evening disappeared quickly as the girls went to their respective corners and proceeded with their unpacking. Normally such an activity could have been completed in a couple of minutes, but their work was interrupted several times by their chatting as well as by the distractions of seeing what the others had brought with them to school. At least no more girls had poked their heads in asking if this was the right room for them. Even so, it was a late night for all four of them.

It was a late night for Keroberos as well. The interest sparked during his introduction hadn't been limited to the humans. Alphred had been watching Keroberos intently the entire evening. Whether this was fear, friendship, or the cat's natural predator instincts coming out, nobody could tell. As such, Keroberos had been forced to watch the cat throughout the whole night in return, just in the off-chance that he had somehow been classified as cat food.

* * *

Last Updated: June 3, 2013


	5. 5: Sakura's First Day of Class

Chapter 5: Sakura's First Day of Class

Sakura and Lisa made their way to the Great Hall, much to the relief of Sakura's stomach. She hadn't eaten very much at the start-of-term banquet and was now regretting it. Neither Deborah nor Linda seemed inclined to join them.

Linda had only just managed to force herself out of bed, exhibiting all the energy of a drunken zombie. For Linda, the desire for a filling breakfast had been outweighed by the siren's call of a few more minutes of rest. Deborah, on the other hand, moved with so little energy that she made Linda look positively hyper. In fact, Deborah hadn't woken up until sleeping any further had become literally impossible.

For the most part, the Great Hall was still set up much like the previous night. Unlike the previous night, however, the fine flatware on the tables had been replaced with more common metal utensils, and a bright blue sky smiled down from above instead of a multitude of stars.

Also, unlike the banquet from before, the atmosphere in the room was rather subdued. A majority of the first year students were present, but there was only a spotty attendance from the other classes. The room was maybe only a quarter full, with pockets of students scattered about. Generally the children of each house stayed together at their respective tables, but mismatching badges could occasionally be seen as some cross-house friends enjoyed breakfast together.

"Shall we find a seat?" Lisa suggested to Sakura. She then turned around and immediately bumped into a small creature scurrying about with a plate of food. They ended up in a heap, the creature on the bottom and Lisa twisted on top of him. Balanced precariously on top of Lisa was a metal platter, with a scone teetering in rhythm with the platter's oscillations.

"Please excuse me. I am so sorry," Lisa exclaimed, jumping to her feet with all the grace she could salvage.

The shape below Lisa quickly climbed to his feet. He had bluish-gray leathery skin, pointed ears, and stood about a foot shorter than Sakura.

"Dotter is so sorry. Dotter is too clumsy," the bluish-gray creature stuttered out. He then quickly picked up the platter and pastries, fumbling and dropping more than a few, before scuttling out of the room.

"What was that?" Sakura asked.

"It was just a house elf," Lisa said.

"A house elf?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. Do you not have them in Japan?" Lisa asked.

"I haven't seen one before," Sakura said.

"How odd," Lisa said as the pair sat down near the end of the Ravenclaw table. "They are like servants. They perform various tasks for a household, such as doing the laundry."

As if summoned by the description, an elf popped his head above the table and placed a large try of cold cuts in between Sakura and Lisa. Another appeared with bagels, sliced bread, and jam. A third appeared and placed some bacon, ham, and eggs. This was followed by a fourth with some cheeses and potatoes. It wasn't as spectacular as when Professor Dumbledore had made the vast banquet appear out of nowhere the night before, but it was just as effective in covering their table with a wide variety of foods.

"See? Just like that," Lisa said.

"Is that so?" Sakura replied. She reached over and helped herself to a plateful of food.

"Do you really not have any elves over in Japan? Who cleans your house then? Who does the dishes?" Lisa asked.

"My father does, and my brother, and me too," Sakura said.

"You do? Really?" Lisa asked. Then she muttered under her breath, "How quaint."

"Yes," Sakura answered, not hearing the after-thought.

Lisa took her turn at collecting her breakfast. It was at this point that Gloria entered the room. She looked around, recognized Sakura, and made a beeline straight for her.

"Hey there. I was worried I wouldn't see anybody this morning. It was Sakera right?" Gloria asked, sitting down next to the two of them.

"Sakura," Sakura corrected. "Sa-ku-ra."

"Oh, Sakura. Sorry," Gloria said, helping herself to some toast and marmalade. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all. My name is Lisa. I am in Ravenclaw," Lisa said.

"I'm Gloria. I'm in Gryffindor, myself," Gloria said, showing off her badge on her robe before picking up a plate which a house elf had suddenly placed in front of her and helping herself to some breakfast.

"How are your roommates? For that matter, where are they?" Sakura asked.

"Most of them seem nice enough, but a lot of them are still trying to wake up. You'll never guess what happened to them, though. They were lying in bed, trying to sleep in and... and..." Gloria started laughing, making it hard for her to choke out, "I swear it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen."

"You too? One of our roommates landed on the ground that way too. We had no idea what happened," Sakura said.

"I guess this means they do not want us to sleep in," Lisa said.

"Oh," Gloria's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "Do you think that the Sorting Hat really knows what it's doing? I thought for sure I was going to go to Slytherin with my brother. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of being in the same house as Harry Potter, but even so. It's not just me either. I swear Hermione should have been put in Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor, the way she kept going on and on about everything."

"Really?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. She kept talking about the history of Hogwarts, and listing all the headmasters in order, and everything. She's so annoying. I don't think anybody likes her," Gloria said.

"So you think Ravenclaw is annoying and nobody likes us?" Sakura asked, visibly upset.

"That's not what I meant," Gloria said, shaking her hands defensively. "I meant she knows so much and likes to show off, and that sounds more like Ravenclaw's thing than Gryffindor's. I mean, when I think of bravery I don't exactly think of somebody spouting off the dates of all the major goblin treaties in the past 200 years, or naming all of the previous headmasters of Hogwarts in reverse order."

"So why did you want to be in Slytherin?" Lisa asked, politely changing the subject. She absently took a cup of tea from one of the passing house elves.

"Oh, my brother is there and he says it's the best. They always win the house cup, don't you know? He also said how everybody who graduates there becomes great in life," Gloria said.

"But all those dark wizards went there too, did they not? I even heard You-Know-Who graduated from there," Lisa said.

"Yes, but many aurors have graduated from there too," Gloria defended.

"Aurors?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. Like... like... you know," Gloria said.

"You do not know any, do you?" Lisa asked flatly.

"Yes I do. My mum's an auror, and she went to Slytherin," Gloria said. Pride was obvious in her voice.

"What is an auror?" Sakura interjected a second time.

There was another pause in the conversation. This was broken by Gloria asking, "You don't know what an auror is?"

"No," Sakura admitted.

"They must be different in Japan. Aurors protect everybody. They chase the baddies, and make sure everything works," Lisa said.

"And my mum's one," Gloria added, pride still evident in her voice.

"They are like, bother, what are those muggles called? Silvers? Coppers? Some metal like that, I think," Lisa continued unabated.

"Silvers? I don't know any silvers," Sakura replied.

"And my mum is one," Gloria said for the third time, not unlike an ignored puppy.

"What's she like?" Sakura finally asked Gloria.

"She's strong, and the gentle, and nice," Gloria exalted. "She's the best auror ever."

"Wow," Sakura answered.

"Oh, what do your parents do?" Gloria asked Sakura

"My father is a professor," Sakura answered, pride showing through in her voice as well.

"A professor?" Lisa asked. "Like the professors here?"

"Yes," Sakura answered. "He teaches about old stuff at a big school."

There was an uncomfortable pause for a second. Lisa filled it with by saying, "I see. My father works at Gringotts."

"Gringotts? You mean that bank?" Gloria asked.

"Yes," Lisa face showed her self-consciousness, but careful inspection showed the same signs of beaming pride that Gloria and Sakura had shown earlier.

"So you all must be really rich, with all that money," Gloria said.

"It is nothing like that. Most of it is the bank's money, not ours," Lisa said.

"I see," Sakura said before changing the subject. "So Gloria, which class do you have first?"

"Oh. Let me check," Gloria answered. She then pulled out a scroll from her pocket and unrolled it. "It looks like Herbology, with Professor Sprout? What about you two?"

"Professor Flitwick, teaching Charms, I think," came Sakura's hesitant response.

Gloria confidently grinned and declared, "That little half-goblin? He's the head of Ravenclaw, isn't he? I've heard about him."

"What is this that you have heard?" asked Lisa.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find out soon enough," Gloria cryptically replied.

* * *

Whatever dire and deadly secrets the mysterious head of the Ravenclaw house was hiding, Sakura couldn't even begin to guess. In all respects he seemed like an ordinary wizard. At least in all respects except size. He was about half the height of a grown man, standing at most three feet tall, with the rest of his body similarly proportioned. He even had a tiny mustache to complete his wizard look. For the first time since coming to the United Kingdom, Sakura wasn't self-conscious about her small size.

The small wizard was sitting on the front of his desk when Sakura entered the room. After everybody had found their way in, Professor Flitwick stood up and shouted out, "Okay everybody. Let's get started. Quiet now. Quiet please. Can you all please be quiet?"

Sakura was surprised at the volume of his voice. It was as loud and clear as a normal-sized person, which was very jarring given his small stature. Despite this it still took several calls before he managed to stop enough conversations to bring the class to a semblance of order.

"Now I'm sure you don't need to be told this, but this is Charms class, the very height of wizardry and witchcraft. When you think of wizardry, who doesn't think of Merlin standing on the hill, brandishing his wand and casting lightning bolts at his enemies? That is the true essence of magic," Professor Flitwick said.

"Does this mean you are going to teach us to throw lightning?" one of the Ravenclaw boys interrupted from side of the room.

"Well, no, Paul," Professor Flitwick answered. There was a groan of disappointment from the class. "But I will teach you how to do things like this!"

Professor Flitwick whipped out his wand and grandly gestured at a frog on the side of the room. The frog jerked upward and started zooming through the air. It displayed no sign of surprise or distress at its predicament, presumably having been through this process before.

The frog might have been used to this trick, but the children clearly weren't. There were numerous gasps and exclamations of surprise from the students, with several of them reflexively ducking when the frog got a little too close to their heads.

While Sakura was just as impressed as anybody else, she did notice something odd in the air. She thought she could barely make out traces of something like The Move, but it was moving far too quickly and faintly for her to be sure.

After several seconds, Professor Flitwick nestled the frog back to its position at the side of the room and lowered his wand.

"Wow. So, you're going to teach us to do that?" Paul asked.

"Yes," Professor Flitwick confirmed, "but not yet."

The faces of all of the students fell at that declaration.

"First you need to learn the basics. It wouldn't do at all to jump right into things. Far, far too dangerous," Professor Flitwick said.

Professor Flitwick's introductory speech continued on, waxing poetic about the beauty of charms. Sakura tried her best to follow everything Professor Flitwick was saying, but several words like "invocation" went complexly over her head. She glanced to her side from time to time to try and glean some insight from Lisa, but every time Sakura did so she saw Lisa staring at Professor Flitwick with rapt attention and the occasional nod. Anthony was sitting in front of Sakura and never looked back so she wasn't able to see his expression, but from the way he was leaning forward she expected he looked similar to Lisa.

Eventually, Professor Flitwick concluded his speech by saying, "But as they say, an ounce of practice is worth a pound of exposition, so let's try out a basic charm now. Go grab a feather out of the bag over there and place it on the center of your desk."

Professor Flitwick waited a few seconds for all of the students to take a feather out of a large bag on the side of the room and return to their desks. He then followed his own instructions, stepping back and placing a modest feather on the center of the desk where he had just been standing.

"Now watch carefully. You will want to flick your wand like this, and say 'Ventus.' Like so," Professor Flitwick said, flicking his wand, "Ventus."

The feather flew off the table as if some invisible man had blown it away. There was a token smattering of applause from the students, clearly more impressed by his earlier charm. Professor Flitwick humored those few who clapped and took an exaggerated bow to the class.

"Now it's your turn. Wands out," Professor Flitwick said.

About half of the class had been waiting for this moment and already had their wands out. The remaining half slowly picked up their wands, holding them like they might come alive and bite.

"Now remember, it's just a small flick, and repeat after me. Ventus," Professor Flitwick said.

"Ventus," came the semi-unified chant of the group. However, that was about all that happened. None of the feathers moved. All around the effect was very anticlimactic.

"Don't worry. That's normal," Professor Flitwick consoled the class. "It's tricky to get on the first try. Concentrate and try to picture blowing the feather away."

"Ha ha, very funny, Terry, but this time try using the charm," Professor Flitwick said to a boy. Terry, a brown-haired boy, gave a light chuckle at having taken Professor Flitwick's instructions too literally.

Now that the chaos of class was in full swing and Professor Flitwick had his attention divided among everybody in the class, the Lisa chanced a lean over to Sakura and whispered, "That must be the longest wand I have ever seen."

"What is?" Sakura whispered back.

"Your wand. It is quite long," Lisa said, in a slightly louder voice.

"It is?" Sakura asked, also in a slightly louder voice. She looked around. Sakura hadn't noticed it before but her wand was substantially longer than any of the others in the room.

"It is. How did you get such a long wand? You do not seem to be exceptionally big yourself, after all," Lisa said.

Sakura still didn't think her 15 inch wand was that big. She was accustomed to the larger form of the Key, let alone the much larger staff form it had taken when Yue and Keroberos had fused with it. If anything she was afraid the wand might snap, being so much more delicate and fragile than the Key.

"Hoe? Does the length of a wand mean something?" Sakura asked.

"I am not sure, but I heard some people saying that..." Lisa started, but was interrupted before she could complete her thought.

The no-longer-whisper had gotten loud enough to catch the attention of Professor Flitwick who said, "Lisa, Sakura, enough chatting. These charms won't cast themselves you know."

"Sorry," Sakura and Lisa said in chorus, and turned back to the task at hand.

Sakura raised her wand again and tried to imitate the gesture she saw Professor Flitwick doing. It felt very strange to her, though. She could clearly see what Professor Flitwick was doing, but it felt like she was cutting a circle in a sheet of paper which had a dotted star on it, or, in this case, a dotted picture of Keroberos drawn on it.

"Very good, Anthony. Well done, well done indeed. One point for Ravenclaw," Professor Flitwick announced. Anthony had been the first person to succeed in getting his feather to gently blow off the table. It could be best described as limp, barely shuffling forward, like it was being blown by an invisible child with asthma, but the feather did slowly move and then fall off the table. The praise, as well as the point, quickly made him the center of the attention for the rest of the class.

Sakura diverted her attention from her friend and turned back to her feather. She decided to try to follow the metaphorical dotted line and let the wand feel its own way.

"Ventus," she chanted. There was no effect, but that feeling of dissonance had at least disappeared.

"Ventus!" she said more force, but with no more effect than the last attempt. This louder voice caught the attention of Lisa who glanced over at Sakura.

As focused as she was on the task at hand, Sakura didn't even notice Lisa's interest. She closed her eyes and tried to capture the same feeling of pattern she felt when she drew upon a Sakura Card. The similarity to the imprinting of The Firey was completely lost to her in her concentrated state.

Without realizing it, Sakura swung her wand in a large arc, coming close to hitting Lisa next to her, and shouted in a voice similar to summoning a card, "VENATASU!"

The heavy accent, as much as the noise itself, caused the class to turn and stare at the source of the voice.

Sakura opened her eyes and saw the smoldering remains of her feather in front of her. She gave out a startled, "Hoe?"

Professor Flitwick immediately pointed his wand at Sakura's feather and instantly extinguished the still smoldering feather. Then in a loud voice, Professor Flitwick asked, "What in the world happened? You again, Sakura? What were you doing? You're lucky I don't dock you a point for that. As it's the first day I'll let you off easy. Don't do it again."

"Hoe. I'm sorry," Sakura said, giving a reflexive bow to the teacher.

"Go get another feather from the bag and try again," Professor Flitwick said. Then in a louder voice, "Enough distractions, back to practice. Now remember to give your wand a good flick, like it has a big bug at the end of it. You too, Sakura."

Sakura's face flushed in embarrassment at this last remark.

Professor Flitwick resumed his walking around the room, giving each student individual attention while simultaneously keeping the class as a whole on track. That he literally disappeared from sight beneath the desks when he jumped to the ground only made his ability for class tutelage that much more impressive.

When Professor Flitwick's attention turned away again, Lisa turned to Sakura and whispered "How did you do that?"

"I don't know," Sakura said.

"Really?" Lisa asked.

"Really," Sakura said.

"I see. Brilliant trick, though," Lisa turned back to her feather, although she kept glancing at Sakura out of the corner of her eye.

Sakura, still the object of the discreet attention of many of her classmates and still blushing as a result, raised her wand to try again. This time she pointedly ignored that awkward feeling when flicking her wand and kept a tight control over her voice, to the mixed relief and disappointment of Lisa.

The more Sakura kept trying the charm more she realized how not right it felt. It was like trying to run a hundred meter dash only to find half of the course had been oiled. She tried to put more power into the wand, but it kept slipping away in uncontrolled directions.

"Very good, Morag," Professor Flitwick's voice cut through the chatter again. "and you too, Mandy. Well done. Good show."

Sakura responded to the challenge the same way she always did with the Sakura Cards and just forced more of her heart through the wand. Her voice began to rise in volume, although not nearly to the same degree it had a few minutes ago, and she felt the strain of the exertion.

Sakura gave a cry of pain and dropped the wand to the desk as it became too hot to handle. This caught the attention of both Lisa, who had never really diverted her attention away from Sakura, and Anthony, who sat just in front of her. Both turned to see Sakura blowing on her now empty hand.

"What's going on here? You again?" Professor Flitwick asked. He had also noticed Sakura's cry a moment ago.

"Sorry, my wand got really hot. Is it supposed to do that?" Sakura asked.

"Got hot? What do you mean?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"I tried to cast the charm like you said but my wand got too hot, so I had to drop it," Sakura explained.

"Here, let me take a look," Professor Flitwick said and picked up the wand, only to quickly drop it again. "What the? How did you do that?"

"I don't know," Sakura said. The barest hint of a cry was appearing in her voice.

"Well, just let the wand cool down for a bit and try again. And call me next time you try so I can watch," Professor Flitwick said.

Throughout the rest of the class, the different students had varying degrees of success. By the end of the session approximately half of the class had succeeded to some degree or another, although towards the end Professor Flitwick's standards had lowered to the point that he was classifying the feathers' edges lightly flickering as a success.

Sakura's wand had finally cooled to the point of being just very warm to the touch when Professor Flitwick's voice cut through the various cries of "Ventus" and the chatting of students who had succeeded and gotten bored of practicing. He announced, "Okay everybody, very good. Very well done. We'll continue this next class. Be sure to read chapter 1 of 'The Standard Book of Spells,' sections five, six, and ten by then, and don't forget to practice, practice, practice."

Sakura let out a sigh of disappointment and put her wand away. To her side, Lisa turned to her and asked, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Everything's fine," Sakura said.

"Are you sure? You do not look well," Lisa said. Sakura's look of disappointment was obvious, even to somebody who had known the girl for less than a day. It stood in stark contrast to the rest of the class, half of which looked excited at casting their first charm.

"I'm sure. Everything is alright," Sakura said. She shook herself and then asked, "So, where are we going to next?"

"Let me check," Lisa said, pulling out a scroll from her pocket. "I think the History of Magic, with Professor Binns."

"Professor Binns?" Sakura asked. She didn't remember that name from the approximately half-dozen professors Kaho had told her about.

* * *

Any residual disappointment Sakura had lingering from Charms class was quickly forgotten when she walked into the History of Magic classroom. In the front of the classroom stood Professor Binns, although stood would be something of a misnomer as he didn't so much stand as float. Professor Binns, teacher of the History of Magic class, was an honest-to-goodness ghost.

Sakura gave a quick yelp upon entering the room and seeing Professor Binns, causing everybody to look at her. She then clung onto Lisa arm, carefully positioning her new friend between herself and the object of her fear.

Anthony, glad to not be the one subjected to Sakura's desperate grasp this time, leaned in from behind the pair of them and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Yu..yu..yurei..." Sakura said, reverting back to Japanese in her fear.

"Yuyuyurei?" Lisa asked.

"I mean ghost," Sakura answered in English, having learned the word during the conversation the previous night.

"Yes? What about it?" Lisa asked. She was slowly losing feeling in her right hand.

"Ah, ah, ah," Sakura stammered.

"Is something wrong?" This was said by Professor Binns himself. He had floated to the back of the class, raised his glasses, and was leaning in to stare at this shambling mess of a girl.

If Sakura hadn't been so scared, she might have noticed a similarity in his stare to how a librarian would examine a book a visitor had brought in to be inspected. Instead, she gave another shout and jumped back, hitting her back rather forcefully against a bookcase at the rear of the classroom. This jostled the books just enough that a couple from the top shelf fell over and landed on top of her, leaving a large cloud of dust over her head and a large bump on it.

Once it became clear Sakura hadn't fatally wounded herself, several of her classmates broke out in laughter at her foibles.

The unfortunate accident did have the minor benefit of making Sakura momentarily forget about the ghostly apparition she had just seen, even if she didn't actually realize she had forgotten about it.

"Are you alright?" Lisa asked. She crouched down and stared eye-level with the slightly dazed Sakura.

"I'm alright," Sakura said, rubbing her head where she felt a bruise forming.

"Thank goodness. That looked like it hurt quite a bit," Lisa said. She had already begun picking up the books scattered around Sakura's sitting body. Meanwhile, some of the laughter from her classmates had begun to die down.

"Ah," Sakura exclaimed realizing the mess she had caused. She started to pick up some of the fallen books as well. In short order they had reached the last book.

"Thank you," Sakura said.

"Not at all," Lisa replied.

"Can we begin our lesson, then?" Professor Binns asked.

Sakura and Lisa looked around them a couple of times, trying to locate the lethargic voice.

"Ahumm," Professor Binns cleared his throat from above their heads.

Sakura and Lisa looked up at the same time and both had the same reaction, although for very different reasons. For Sakura, the fear of ghosts had been long taught and was deeply ingrained within her. For Lisa, the fear of a young student getting on the bad side of a brand new teacher was almost as deeply conditioned inside of her.

"Please take your seats now," the voice above said, with contrasting effects upon both students. Lisa dashed to a chair and sat down as quickly as she could, affecting a posture showing equal parts "I did not do anything wrong" and "I am so horribly sorry for all the trouble I have caused, I do not know how that could have happened."

Sakura, on the other hand, dashed in the exact opposite direction, hitting the book case again and falling over a second time. Luckily for her all of the loose books had already been knocked down so she just ended up with a sore nose and a dazed head. The class broke out in a second round of laughter.

"That will do," Professor Binns said sharply, catching the attention of all of the new students and bringing their merriment to a halt. Nobody wanted to take any chances with this strange, new professor.

"If we can turn to the subject of history, I am the teacher of this class, the History of Magic. My name is Professor Binns," the ghost said. His voice had abruptly changed from the sharp comment earlier and instead taken on a supernatural monotony as he began his lecture in earnest.

Sakura needed to sit down to recoup her thoughts. Luckily, a chair happened to be available near her at the back of the room, far away from the ghost lecturing in front.

"Over the coming years you will learn all about the wondrous history of magic with its grand events and great wizards and witches, many of which you may already know, such as the famous names of Merlin and Medea, as well as the lesser known names, such as Tim, for each of these people, and countless others, have lived in interesting times, changed the world as well as have been changed by it, and the interweaving of the unimaginable events around them is sure to create such a tapestry which will impress even the most jaded of you if you but open your eyes to it and the wonders of..."

The speech continued on with such a regular pacing and inflection that it would do a metronome proud. It sounded like it was quite literally taken word-for-word from a history textbook's introduction. By the time Professor Binns had gotten to the section about "and so in this one example you can see how Victoria's situation bears striking resemblance to Katherine's 150 years prior, and if she had," most of the class's attention was wandering. They had taken the measure of this strange new professor, and nobody was impressed. Even the most diligent of the students was finding it hard to concentrate on the ghost. The students closer to the window suddenly discovered that the sky had a most unique shade of blue today, whereas the students further away suddenly discovered exactly how remarkably interesting the backs of their fellow students actually were.

Sakura for her part spent the time alternating between staring in curiosity and turning away in fear from Professor Binns, almost as if he were some novel flesh-wound on a friend. She couldn't bear to look at him, but couldn't bear to look away either. He was a stogy old man with thick-rimmed glasses and a tweed suit. What made his look especially unusual, however, was that it looked like he was being piped through an old black and white television.

As time passed, the fear in Sakura started to die down, aided in no small part by the supernatural monotony of what Professor Binns was saying. It didn't hurt that he was all the way at the front of the classroom and staring at the floor either.

By this point, despite their most valiant efforts, about a fourth of the Ravenclaw students had fallen asleep and several others were on the verge of doing the same. Most had managed to stay moderately upright, although more than a couple heads were bobbing down and up like some giant toy bird. There were a few students still wide awake, though, and a very few were even taking notes on voluminous scrolls.

Sakura was one of the students who was wide awake, but for a very different reason than the others. When she could stand it she stared at the limpid ghost, lest he manifest his true form and perform some unknowable and unspeakable evil upon her and the rest of the class.

It was onto this hopeless scene that the signal marking the end of the class came, and not a minute too soon for half of the class. For the other half it shocked them awake with a confused start.

"Is it time already? In that case I'll see you all tomorrow," the monotonic voice of Professor Binns concluded. He then turned away and walked through a wall, leaving the semi-disoriented class behind him.

The half of the class which had slipped into slumber, both with and without a convincing semblance of consciousness, came to in befuddlement. Looking around to their more wakeful classmates, they found very few clues to bring them up to speed on what was occurring. Even those who had managed to stay awake were looking half-dazed at the abrupt end to the tirade of meaningless words they had been subjected to.

After a minute of confused silence, Sakura asked the question that they had all been wondering. "Is it over?"

* * *

Sakura could feel the obvious excitement in the air as she looked around the field.

For the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students, who had spent years coveting the freedom and power that was denied to them as they watched their parents and siblings fly around like they owned the sky, this was the class they had been most looking forward to at Hogwarts. The fact they got their first lesson in flying on the first day of class was a particular point of pride for both houses against the first year students in Slytherin and Gryffindor. Those unfortunate houses would have to wait until Thursday. They would never admit it, but both Slytherin's and Gryffindor's students were absolutely livid with envy.

This yearning to start flying had been further enhanced for both of the houses of students by their more immediate histories as well. The Ravenclaws had just suffered through the History of Magic lecture with the legendarily boring Professor Binns, whereas the Hufflepuffs had just suffered through the Defense of the Dark Arts lecture with the strangely smelly Professor Quirrel. The smell alone wouldn't have been so bad except the entire lesson had consisted of a health and safety lecture which was almost as boring as Professor Binns himself.

Both houses were convinced that they had had the worse time of it.

The two flocks of students had gathered around in two large blobs in the middle of the field. Between the two blobs were a number of brooms. Most of them had been lined up in a neat row on the ground, but a few of the more adventurous students had grabbed a broom and were pantomiming flying by running around while holding it between their legs.

It was into this pandemonium that Madam Hooch marched onto the scene from the direction of Hogwarts Castle. "That's enough wasting time. Stop goofing around. We have a lot to cover and no time to spare. Put those brooms back and everybody stand beside one."

Her no-nonsense voice grabbed the attention of even the most excited student and they all quickly complied. Nobody wanted to do anything to hold up the class no matter how rambunctious they felt.

Sakura, having no pent up desire from years of denied flight, found her ordinary level excitement in the class overwhelmed by the longing of all of the other students and quickly found herself standing over a broom at the very end of the row. At least this put her next to Lisa, who had also been relegated towards the end of the line during the bustle.

"Now, everybody hold your hand above the broom and say 'up.'" Madam Hooch said.

Sakura didn't quite understand what was supposed to happen, but did it regardless. She concentrated on the broom and joined in the chant with the other students.

The combined shout of "up" from all the students could have pierced the thick stone walls of Hogwarts Castle, if the practice grounds hadn't been placed a few hundred feet away from the building itself. This loud cry would have impressed Madam Hooch except for two things.

The first was that this auditory onslaught occurred at least twice a year for as long as Madam Hooch had been teaching this class; almost certainly the loud shout had been a twice annual tradition for far longer than even that. The second was that the combined yell was superseded by a giant explosion.

The explosion immediately dragged Madam Hooch's attention away from the line of students and brooms to the scene of the disaster at the end of the row. She pushed students to the side as she ran to the source of the noise, shouting, "Out of the way!"

Things looked bad. The remnants of an exploded broom could be seen scattered several yards from a charred mark of grass on the ground. Several feet from the epicenter were two girls and a boy in a heap.

Sakura, lying on the top of the heap, was by far the worst injured of the three. Her right leg was badly charred and bent at an unnatural angle. She probably had multiple compound fractures on her arm and leg, and a dislocated shoulder judging by the unnatural shape of the joint.

Lisa, stacked in the middle of the three, seemed to be in better shape. One of her arms was broken by the look of it, but at least she didn't have any of the burn marks which covered Sakura. Most likely she had been protected from most of the blast by the body of the other girl.

The sandy-haired Hufflepuff boy on the bottom looked to be in the best shape of the three. He would end up with some nasty bruising, but he seemed to be in about as good a shape as could be expected after the two other bodies had been forcibly thrown into him. It seemed like the boy had gotten off much lighter than his two female counterparts.

She knelt down to get a closer look at the trio. The girl on top was unconscious. It was probably for the best, given her injuries. The girl in the middle was looking disoriented and Madam Hooch guessed she was in shock. Luckily, the boy on the bottom, although obviously in pain, seemed mostly alright.

Madam Hooch reached over to gently pick up the heavily injured Sakura. While holding her, she addressed the two conscious students. "Are you two all right? Can you walk?"

"I think so," the boy said. The girl gave no response to the question.

Turning behind her, she addressed the three closest children, all coincidentally Ravenclaw students. "Terry, Su, Stephen, you three come here and give them a hand. We're going to the hospital wing. Terry and Su, you help Lisa there, and Stephen you help Wayne. Quickly now, but be careful you don't hurt them."

"Everybody, we're going to see Madam Pomfrey. Nobody is to touch the brooms or try to fly while I'm not around," Madam Hooch declared.

Madam Hooch's warning wasn't needed. After the explosion, none of the students was inclined to try anything. The enthusiasm of two housefuls of students, lovingly harbored and nurtured for years, burned away like so much fuel in the explosion. More than one student swore to never touch a broom for long as they lived.

As she walked back to Hogwarts Castle, five students in tow, Madam Hooch hoped to herself that she would finally be able to convince the board of trustees to get some new brooms. She had requested replacements for years, but they could never find the budget for them. The training set of brooms they had were so old that in her opinion it had only been a matter of time before something like this happened, never mind the clean bill of health the company inspectors had given them just last month.

She made a note to herself to talk to Professor Dumbledore before Thursday's classes. She'd be damned if she was going to allow any other students to use these old brooms after an incident like this without a thorough inspection by an independent inspector, if not an outright replacement of them all.

* * *

Sakura was in pain. The pain felt muted and dulled though. Rather than having a sharp immediacy which dominated all thought and demanded her attention, it felt more like how a tooth felt after getting a filling before the anesthetic wore off. Unlike a tooth filling, though, the effect wasn't limited to a single spot and instead covered the entire right side of her body.

Underlying this and cutting through the woolly pain was an undertone of warmth; the gentle feeling she always associated with Yukito. That made no sense, though. Yukito was still in Japan with Toya, unless Yue had felt something and came rushing to the United Kingdom to save her like he had done several times before in Japan. If he had come, though, how could he survive being so far away from Toya and the magical energy her brother provided for so long? For that matter, the United Kingdom was hours away from Japan, not the couple of minutes of flight she had always been from Yukito while they had been in the same city, so how had Yue gotten here?

While she was trying to reconcile this contradiction something else intruded into her consciousness. It sounded like somebody was talking, although it contained the fuzziness which accompanied a dream.

"... was helping me walk or something. Before I realized it I was in this hospital and Madam Pomfrey was having me drink some potion. It really hurt."

Sakura tried to say something, but it instead came out as a groan. This caused the voice to stop for a few seconds. She tried to say something again, with the same effect.

"Are you awake, Sakura-chan? How do you feel?" A different voice this time, and speaking in Japanese at that. That was strange too. She was in the United Kingdom now wasn't she? It sounded familiar for some reason but she didn't recognize it. She felt like she should, though. It was somehow comforting.

Sakura slowly tried to open her eyes, quickly closed them as the light assaulted her vision, and then slowly cracked them open again. There was a small light blur above her. She slowly turned her head to the side, towards the two voices, and saw two more blurs. These two were more people-shaped.

"Careful, you've been in quite an accident," the second voice said, still in Japanese. Sakura's eyes slowly came into focus.

Red hair. Long red hair. Long red hair on top of familiar face.

"Mizuki-sensei," Sakura struggled out.

"I thought you might want a friendly face when you woke up and Pomfrey-sensei didn't argue too much," Kaho said. She had argued that Sakura might prefer to talk in Japanese when she got up and Madam Pomfrey didn't want to take any chances with a confused patient. "How do you feel?"

"My head hurts a little. My right side too. The arm and the leg, but it's not too bad," Sakura said, answering in Japanese. "What happened?"

"Lisa-chan said there'd been an accident in class. Your broom exploded and ya'd been hurt pretty badly," Keroberos explained, also in Japanese. He had taken the chance to move and was now hovering to the side of Kaho.

"The last thing I remember was lining up," Sakura said, her voice trailing off at the end.

"It's my guess that probably you put too much energy into that old broom. It couldn't handle it and overloaded. I'm sorry. I should have warned you. You need to be careful around these magic items, Sakura-chan. They're made so that everybody can use them so they need to react to low amounts of magic. You can't just treat them like the Key and the Sakura Cards. You'll need to use a lot of control when you use them or things like this can happen," Kaho said. Even if it was a cliché, it was true that having too much power could be a bad thing.

"Yeah, ya probably got more magic energy than anybody else here," Keroberos added, obvious pride in his mistress showing through. "Shoddy devices couldn't handle it. Ya got to be careful with them. Easy does it."

"Ah, I'm sorry for the trouble, Mizuki-sensei, Kero-chan," Sakura said.

"Oh, no. I should be apologizing to you. It's as much my fault that this happened," Kaho said. Then, switching to English, she said, "I had better be going now or Madam Pomfrey will come by and yell at me. I'll tell Professor Quirrel that you're still in the infirmary and won't be able to join his class. It's only the first day so you shouldn't miss too much."

"Thank you," Sakura answered weakly, switching back to English to match Kaho.

"If you need anything, be sure to get me. You can also send Keroberos if you need to. I doubt even Madam Pomfrey would try and stop him at a time like this," Kaho said. She then gracefully got to her feet and walked out of the room, passing an elderly lady wearing a red dress with a white smock sitting at a desk. They exchanged a few words in passing, then Kaho was gone and the woman went back to the papers she was working on.

"What were you three talking about?" Lisa asked in a whisper. The room carried the same oppressive ambiance that churches, courtrooms, and graveyards have which almost demand reverent silence.

"She was just telling me to be careful," Sakura said. She didn't want to explain what Kaho had said about her using too much power as she was no more inclined to stand out now than she had been inclined to the day before, despite all the incidents which seemed to keep happening around her.

Keroberos nodded twice in agreement to Sakura's explanation.

"She had to say all of that just to tell you to be careful? Japanese really sounds like a complicated language," Lisa said.

"I guess so," Sakura said with a nervous laugh.

Lisa decided to let her roommate off the hook and instead asked, "So, how did you come to Hogwarts? It really is far away from Japan."

"Professor Mizuki used to be my teacher from my last school. She and Eriol live around here and suggested I come to this school to learn more about magic," Sakura said.

"Professor Mizuki? Eriol? Who are they?" Lisa asked.

"Professor Mizuki was that woman here a minute ago, and Eriol is a close friend," Keroberos explained, in English again.

"I see. I suppose you are lucky then. After all, Hogwarts is the best. Everybody who is anybody graduated from here," Lisa said.

"Wow. I guess it is a lot different than my last school. I didn't know it was that good," Sakura said.

"How is it different?" Lisa asked.

"Lots of things. Here we live at school, but in my last school we lived at home and just went to class every day. There's all this magic everywhere too," Sakura said.

"I see," Lisa said. She could no longer hold it in and added, "Hogwarts really does not have that much magic compared to normal. I guess Japan really is a bit of a magical backwater, as I have been told."

Keroberos gave a snort. "Japan has plenty of magic, you know. It's just the last school Sakura went to was a muggle one. They didn't have any magic there at all."

"It was? Why were you going to one of those?" Lisa asked.

"It's nothing too special. I just didn't find out about magic until very recently," Sakura explained

"You poor thing. That must have been a dreadful life," Lisa sympathized. Much like Gloria, magic was so instrumental to Lisa daily existence she couldn't imagine a life without it.

"It wasn't that bad," Sakura said. "What about you? How did you come here?"

"Father attended Hogwarts. Grandfather and grandmother did as well. They probably wanted me to go to Slytherin, although I suppose that was impossible. I hope they are not too disappointed," Lisa answered.

"Why would they be disappointed?" Sakura asked. Between this and Gloria's statement in the morning, she was worried that somehow her house was inferior to Slytherin in some way.

"Grandfather was in Slytherin, as was Grandmother. Father was as well. I suppose with Mother being a muggle there was no way to continue the legacy," Lisa said with a sigh. "At least I did not end up in Hufflepuff. That would have been absolutely dreadful."

Sakura only briefly met a couple of Hufflepuffs before the flight class but they didn't seem like bad people, so she said, "The Hufflepuffs seem nice. What's wrong with them?"

"Maybe. I do not think Father would have minded, and Mother does not understand, although she does try so hard. No, it is Grandfather and Grandmother and all of the rest of the family. They always go on about how Hufflepuffs are nobodies and never amount to anything. I am quite afraid of what they would have said if I had ended up in there," Lisa said.

"It sounds like those punks are the type which thinks 'blood line purity' is all there is to magic; that hundreds of years inbreeding somehow gives them a right to more than everybody else. I'll have you know I know lots of half-blood and muggle-born wizards and witches who are plenty powerful and much better than any pureblood you can name," Keroberos said. He almost named Sakura by name, but was able to suppress his urge to show off at the last second.

"Yes, they don't sound like very nice people," Sakura said. Then realizing suddenly who she was talking she added, "Sorry, Lisa. I didn't mean to say bad things about your relatives."

"Actually I do not like them very much. I think they rather dislike Mother. They are always talking behind her back and being mean to her," Lisa said. She shook her head and then tried to change the subject. "What about your parents? You said your father was a professor, but what about your mother? What does she do?"

"My mother died when I was young," Sakura said.

Lisa put a hand to her mouth in shock, and said, "I am so sorry."

"Don't worry. I don't really remember her, and Dad is very good so I don't feel lonely at all," Sakura said. Toya was good too, Sakura added to herself, making a little face at that thought.

"So your father is a professor? What was his reaction to learning about magic? I heard lots of muggles have problems with it, especially well educated ones," Lisa asked.

Sakura hesitated a moment before saying, "Actually, I don't think he knows."

She knew he suspected, and she suspected he knew, but she didn't know if he actually knew. She would have to ask Eriol next time they met to find out if he had told him on the phone months ago. Somehow, she never got around to asking while living at Reed Manor.

"He does not know? How is that possible?" Lisa asked incredulously.

"Her brother knows, though. He used to be able to use magic himself too," Keroberos interceded.

"You have a brother?" Lisa asked, the more immediate and pressing question coming first.

"Yes, I do," Sakura said.

"Wait, you said he used to able to use magic. What happened to him?" Lisa asked.

"He gave up his magic. He had to give it up to save somebody close to him," Keroberos explained.

Sakura felt a stab of guilt go through her as he said this. If only she had been stronger; they could have avoided that. Maybe, now that Sakura was surrounded by wizards and witches, she might be able to find somebody who knew how to restore Toya. She thought she was strong enough to support Yue now, after all. If nothing else, Eriol might have an idea too. She would need to look into that as well when she had a chance to later.

"How romantic," Lisa said, completely missing Sakura's thoughtful look in favor of the stars in her own eyes. She was about to continue when they heard a voice to the side.

"Ahem. If I can intrude I'll just see to making sure you both are ready to go back to class." They had been interrupted by Madam Pomfrey. None of the three of them had noticed when she had gotten up from the papers she had been working on and approached them.

Madam Pomfrey's exuded a feeling of cool professionalism overlaid with the warm empathy and compassion which came from years of experience as a nurse and then as matron of the hospital wing of Hogwarts. She also had a look of modest annoyance from her failed attempts earlier to get their attention.

"Let's have a look at you," Madam Pomfrey said as she approached Lisa. She took Lisa's arm and pulled it upward, twisting it to the left and right as she squinted carefully at the young girl.

"I see. Looks good. Looks perfect. I love a simple broken bone. I see absolutely nothing wrong with you anymore. You're good to go," Madam Pomfrey said.

She then turned to Sakura and said, "Now for you, my dear. How does this feel?"

Madam Pomfrey poked Sakura in the arm as she spoke, keeping an equally analytical eye on her. Sakura gave a small wince of pain at the dull throb this produced.

"I see, I see. Not quite done, this one. How about your leg then, how does it feel?" Without waiting for a response she tapped Sakura's knee and watched the leg bounce.

"That's quite good. Much better. I'd better get some more Bombing Burnimation Balm. I'm afraid you'll need to stay here a bit longer. You'll be done in time for the last class of the day, though, if I have anything to say about it," Madam Pomfrey declared.

"I'll be right back then, but you, young miss, should go back to class," Madam Pomfrey said to Lisa. She got to her feet and walked back out of the room, leaving the two students and the floating guardian alone again.

"It sounds like you shall be missing the first Defense of the Dark Arts class. Sorry about that," Lisa said.

"Maybe, but it sounds like it's more bad luck for you. You're going to have to actually go to it," Keroberos said.

"What do you mean Kero-chan? Defense of the Dark Arts sounds like fun, like what we were doing with Eriol back in Japan," Sakura said.

"It might sound like that, but you didn't hear what Wayne was saying earlier," Keroberos said, then flying in close he added in a loud whisper, "Apparently Professor Quirrel is weird, and he smells funny."

"Kero-chan!" Sakura protested, scandalized he would say something so disrespectful about an adult.

"It's true. That's what he was telling everybody before. It was like Professor Quirrel was bathing in garlic. He was also wearing a funny hat, which smelled even worse," Keroberos said.

* * *

Sakura was out of the hospital wing in time for the last class of the day, as Madam Pomfrey had expected. The class turned out to be Potions with Professor Snape, located in one of the dungeons of Hogwarts. Sakura managed to catch up with the rest of her class just before they reached the dank room at the bottom of the castle.

Actually she had first caught sight of them at the staircases, but due to the random nature of the stairs, she was out of casual earshot for the whole journey down. It was only when both she and they were on solid ground that she was able to join up with the rest of the class.

Sakura had expected to be interrogated about what happened after Flying class, but as she approached she overheard Linda say, "I heard things about Professor Snape."

"Like what?" asked Terry. Sakura seamlessly joined the group, happy to not be the subject of conversation.

"My brother said that he's the meanest, nastiest teacher in the whole school," Linda said. "I heard he picks on students he doesn't like, and that he even tries to poison them."

"What? My sister's friends all say he's the coolest professor in the class," Terry said in response. Then mocking the cooing of several of the girls he parroted, "He's so dark and mysterious. I so wish I could go out with him."

"They're probably Slytherins. My brother said that he shamelessly favors them. He said all of the Gryffindors absolutely hate him," Linda countered.

"At least he can't be as bad as Professor Quirrel," Stephen said. "How did he get the job teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts? He looked like he would fall over in a strong wind."

"And that smell. Whew. We'd probably turn him out of our inn if he showed up smelling like that. He'd scare off all our other customers, not to mention ruin any food we tried to serve," Anthony added.

They reached the classroom by this point, and a chill passed over the Ravenclaw students who had been talking. The door to the dungeon was open, and a tall, lanky, dark-haired man stood just inside glaring out of the door at them with indignation. More than one of the students hoped Professor Snape hadn't heard their gossip.

The Hufflepuff students were already sitting in the room. They had taken the seats on the far side of the room, leaving the side of the classroom nearest the door open for the entering Ravenclaws.

"Ah, Kinomoto. It's good to see you could make it despite what Professor Mizuki said," Professor Snape said out with a flat affect of indifference. "This is the most important class you will attend in your time at Hogwarts, after all."

Sakura blushed at being singled out as the Ravenclaws found seats, two to a table. Lisa took the seat adjacent to Sakura's.

"Any fool can wave a wand or feed an animal." Professor Snape's introduction practically dripped with scorn for those lesser arts he had no part of. "No, this is the true essence of magic. The beauty of a gently simmering cauldron, the intoxicating power of a well brewed elixir."

"McMillan!" Professor Snape abruptly turned to a Hufflepuff boy. "What is the main use of a bezoar."

The boy in question jumped as his name was called, and then literally shook in fear at Professor Snape's piercing stare. The rest of the class watched him in sympathy. "I.. I.. I don't know, sir."

"How expected. Spoken like a true Hufflepuff. Of course you don't know. That's why you are here, to learn this finest art of magic. You will learn too, after this class is done. You'll know that a bezoar is found in the stomach of a goat, and will cure almost any poison," Professor Snape said to the boy, who nodded gravely. He then snapped to the class as a whole, "Pay attention! This may one day save your life."

A few of the more studious students pulled out paper and quill and were trying to figure out how to spell "bezoar."

Professor Snape turned his attention to the other side of the classroom and now focused his fierce stare towards a hapless Ravenclaw girl. He challenged, "Li! What do you get when you mix lavender, rosewood, black widow eggs, and powdered moonstone?"

"Uhh... lavender, rosewood, eggs, and moonstone?" Su prevaricated. Professor Snape's sharp glare froze Su in place as effectively as a needle pinning an insect to a card.

"I'm waiting," Professor Snape pressed, leaning slightly forward and staring at her as if he could read the nuances of her very soul.

"Ah, well, umm," Su looked around, trying to seek help. Instead, all of the students were looking at her with a mixture of sympathy and fear, especially the young McMillan boy who had just gone through the same experience. She hesitated, withering under Professor Snape's glare, before she finally managed to say, "You get a sleeping potion. No, wait, I mean a love potion."

"Which is it then?" Professor Snape asked. A touch of condescension was barely detectable in his voice underneath the massive amount of mocking in his question.

"A love potion, I think," Su hesitatingly said.

"Do you really? Are you sure?" Professor Snape scoffed.

"I... I think so," Su said, looking like she was about to cry.

"I see," Professor Snape said. "I seems the Ravenclaws this year are well prepared, as usual. One point for Ravenclaw."

Su released a relieved breath. The other Ravenclaws would have cheered ,except Professor Snape projected an aura which suppressed all thoughts of acting out.

Professor Snape continued. "Love potions are very common and you can make them in over a dozen ways. One of the strongest and probably the most well known is a mixture of ashwinder eggs, rose thorns, peppermint, and powdered moonstone; but lavender, rosewood, black widow eggs, and powdered moonstone works almost as well and is much easier to prepare."

Some of the girls started thinking about how to use this information when Professor Snape snapped out, "I'll not teach you such rubbish in this class. How trivial a toy that is when you can bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper in death."

All of the students were leaning forward in their seats. Professor Snape was talking in a low intense monotone, but somehow each of his words was perfectly clear to even the back of the class.

"That will all come later. First you will start simple, and the simplest of potions might be an ordinary cure for boils. They were making this simple brew over a thousand years ago, so surely even you lot should be able to manage it. Go retrieve your cauldrons and one bag per table from the back of the room," Professor Snape said.

The children scrambled out of their seats and hastened to do Professor Snape's bidding.

The recipe looked easy enough when written on the blackboard in the front of the classroom. However, somehow when the new students actually starting performing the nine short steps they quickly became an indecipherable mess of confusion.

"Goldstein!" Professor Snape barked out. Anthony jumped to attention at hearing his name snapped out. Professor Snape managed to sound both derisory and bored at the same time as he ordered, "Do you really intend to use such coarse nettles? Grind them again."

"Hopkins, what does step four say?" Professor Snape snapped to a hapless boy on the far side of the room.

"Sorry," Wayne said, looking up and turning pale. He then picked the cauldron off of the burner before adding the quills

The class continued that way, each student trying their utmost to follow the instructions, lest they draw the attention and ire of the dark haired professor, yet each making a basic mistake and drawing his harsh voice from across the room. Somehow, Professor Snape could detect even the smallest deviation of procedure from his place at the front of the class.

At first the called out students were embarrassed at their mistakes and all of the other students inwardly mocked his or her incompetence. This was only in the beginning, though. After ten minutes, everybody had been called out at least once, many students twice or more, and most were no longer embarrassed at being singled out for correction and instead just took things in stride.

Sakura was struck by how similar this was to cooking pancakes. Just follow the instructions, take the ingredients, measure, prepare, mix, and cook.

"Left hand, Kinomoto, left hand," Professor Snape chastised from the front of the room.

Sakura blushed, and then switched the hand she held the stirring rod in. It was like cooking, only with a lot of strange and nonsensical rules, she corrected to herself.

"You put the quills in before the nettles, Turpin. Start over," Professor Snape commanded. Lisa started over for the third time.

The rest of the class proceeded, with more potion aborted and restarted than could be counted. Luckily the potion required very little of each ingredient, or each table would have long run out of supplies. With class drawing to a close, only two Ravenclaws and one Hufflepuff managed to have anything resembling the cure mixed, judging by the colors and smells pervading the room and frantic stirring of the remaining students.

Three Ravenclaws, Sakura thought to herself, as she put down her stirring rod and breathed a sigh of relief. She had cut it close, having had to try three times, but she managed to complete the potion.

"So you think you are done, Kinomoto?" Professor Snape's harsh voice cut through her relaxing.

Sakura looked up, and saw Professor Snape looming over her table and looking down at her and her potion, although when he had approached she had no idea.

"Yes," Sakura hesitantly answered, barely managing to keep her voice steady.

"I see. So take a drink then," Professor Snape said.

"Hoe?" Sakura replied.

"You might not have any boils, but if you made your cure correctly it should be safe to drink. The hospital wing isn't too far away from here either, if the stairs are being friendly that is. Of course if you want to check again and start over, you are welcome to," Professor Snape said. The challenge was evident is his voice.

Sakura took a deep gulp and stared at the potion sitting in front of her. It had a faint smell of sulfur, and the pale green color did nothing to make it look more appetizing.

"Well?" Professor Snape pressed.

Sakura slowly picked up the phial that held the concoction. Then holding her nose she tipped the glass to her lips.

The potion hit her mouth, tasting not quite as bad as it seemed like it should. It had a definite metallic taste of medicine, but it was not undrinkably strong. Despite this, she coughed a fair bit, due to both the expectation of a bad taste and the fact that she had been holding her nose. She still managed to swallow most of the phial despite the coughing attack.

Professor Snape leaned down and stared at her face for any reaction. One moment passed. Then two. Then three. Sakura stood there nervously while the tall, dark professor stared at her intently.

"Hmm... It looks like you aren't completely without talent. One point for Ravenclaw," Professor Snape finally said. This announcement was met with the same thunderous lack of cheering from the Ravenclaw half of the room that Su's earlier point had also failed to generate.

The point awarded barely registered to Sakura though. More noteworthy to her than what he had said was how he had said it. Underneath the obvious boredom and derision in Professor Snape's voice, Sakura thought she heard the barest hint of something else. Disappointment? Surprise? Something else?

Before Sakura could think about it any further, Professor Snape announced in his normal tone of voice, "Times up. Put your leftover nettles on this table, your leftover quills over there, and clean your cauldrons and phials in the sinks in the back."

The whole class gave a sigh of relief at the torture being over, although most of the students who hadn't finished were disappointed at not having time for one last try.

* * *

Last Updated: September 24, 2012


	6. 6: Sakura and Life at Hogwarts

Chapter 6: Sakura and Life at Hogwarts

Sakura needed to use the bathroom. Despite this, contrary to what might be expected, she didn't enter the bathroom just to her side. Instead she quickly walked past and tried her best to ignore it. She wasn't desperate enough to use that one, the one with that creepy ghost in it. It was worth an extra few minutes of walking to find a safe one.

Seeing ghosts on a daily, almost hourly basis was having an effect on Sakura. She was finding her attitude towards ghosts slowly changing from fear and horror to more ordinary vexation.

Very, very slowly changing.

She had developed to the point that she no longer screamed in abject terror every time she saw a ghost. Sometimes she even felt annoyed when Peeves chased her down a hallway and kept her trapped in a closet, at least after she had escaped and could safely look back at the situation.

Of all the ghosts, or things which passed for them, Peeves was the one Sakura most disliked. He normally enjoyed pulling pranks on students and doing his utmost to distract, annoy, rat-out, and generally be as big a nuisance as possible whenever possible. However, when he discovered his ability to scare the new foreign student, he took to this new hobby like a fish to water and made it a point to spook her every chance he could. It felt to Sakura that he was intentionally seeking her out to make her life extra miserable.

Unbeknownst to Sakura, this feeling of being singled out by Peeves was a feeling that most of the students in the school seemed to share.

Despite Peeves's antics, or perhaps because of them, Sakura was learning that not all spirits were equally bad. In particular Gray Lady, the unofficial house ghost of Ravenclaw, was almost tolerable. Every time Sakura saw her she was in the library, usually reading over some student's shoulder or helping with a particularly difficult problem set. Nine times out of ten Gray Lady didn't even seem to notice Sakura, and the few times Gray Lady did she simply gave a smile and a wave without trying to approach her. Sakura would then be forced to give a self-conscious wave back from across the room. She could almost believe that Gray Lady wasn't out to drag her into a hideous other world and perform unimaginable acts of torture on her.

This train of thought led her back to the bathroom she was studiously ignoring. The first time she had entered that bathroom on the second floor a ghost had appeared and screamed at her, causing Sakura to do the same in chorus and sprint out of the bathroom as fast as she could run.

Most ghosts avoided bathrooms, having the decency to allow the students and staff to keep theirs. Unfortunately, most ghosts didn't include Peeves, who once had kept Sakura trapped in a stall for an hour before some upperclassmen had showed up and driven him off. Most ghosts didn't include that newly discovered ghost girl either, apparently.

With that ghost girl's willingness to haunt bathrooms and her seeming desire to appear as scary as possible, her similarity to Peeves was obvious. Sakura had no inclination to ever see that bathroom ghost again. The last thing she wanted was a second Peeves wandering around the castle making her life extra miserable.

Sakura kept on her quest to find a safe bathroom, walking slightly faster as she did so. Her first Transfiguration class was in a few minutes and she didn't want to be late. She especially didn't want to lose any more points for Ravenclaw.

Overall, despite that risk, she felt this detour was worth it.

* * *

Sakura was able to get to class in time, despite the lengthy detour.

She missed using her skates to get around. Not only did they save time, which she could have used more of with the long trips through the large castle, they were a lot of fun as well. Unfortunately, while the hallways' width may arguably have allowed for mostly safe usage of the skates, their uneven stone floors, while beautiful to look at, were impossible to ride on. Likewise, outside of the castle there was nothing coming close to smooth hard pavement anywhere nearby, so Sakura had no place to roll around on even just for fun. None of her friends had much sympathy for her, though, being both completely bemused and utterly incredulous about how the wheeled boots were supposed to work.

Despite the lack of mobility equipment, Sakura caught up with the rest of the students at the threshold of the classroom just in time to hear Terry say, "My sister says this is the best class in school. Professor McGonagall is supposed to be one of the best teachers. She actually decided to go after a Transfiguration N.E.W.T. because of her."

"That's good to hear. The last thing we need is another Professor Sprout," a boy with longish black hair said as they entered the classroom. Professor McGonagall was nowhere in sight, despite the fact that this was her classroom and that her class was about to start.

"What's that supposed to mean, Michael?" Linda asked. She liked Professor Sprout and was eager to defend her.

"Isn't it obvious? It means that Professor Sprout is boring," Michael said louder than he would have if any professors had been in earshot. "Herbology's just a lot of studying stupid plants and stuff. If I want some nightshade I'm going to go to a store and buy some, not grow it myself."

A cat who had been sitting on the desk at the front of the room leaped to the ground, transforming into the tall shape of Professor McGonagall while falling through the air.

"Then I'll try not to be boring, Mr. Corner," came Professor McGonagall's sharp rebuke. With an entrance like that, though, Sakura was sure that whatever else this class might be, "boring" would not be a word which could be applied to it.

The named boy turned red and sputtered a bit at being called out.

"If you are all finished gossiping maybe you can take a seat." Professor McGonagall's request came more as a demand than a question. The students hurried to their places and sat down.

"I'll have no fooling around in here. I want you all to pay close attention, is that clear, Mr. Corner?" Professor McGonagall said, directing her piercing gaze to the boy. Michael vigorously nodded in response.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall continued. "Anyone caught messing around will be asked to leave and will not come back."

All of the students felt a compulsion to nod at her declaration. Much like Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall emitted a presence which demanded both attention and respect.

With everybody's attention, Professor McGonagall waved a wand she suddenly had in her hand and transfigured her desk into a pig, drawing gasps of surprise from the whole class.

Sakura was shocked at this feat. She watched the curls of magic stream from Professor McGonagall's wand and surround the desk, weaving strange patterns and subtly coaxing the wood to take a new shape. She had never seen magic acting this way before. She didn't even know such a thing was possible.

She stared in fascination as Professor McGonagall reversed the transfiguration, the streams of magic once again forming similar but different patterns around the animal before forcing the flesh to revert to its original shape.

Since coming to Hogwarts, Sakura had discovered so many facets of magic that she hadn't even known were possible while she had lived back in Japan. She was looking forward to learning as much as she could. To this end, while much of the class was disappointed when it became apparent that they wouldn't be doing anything so complex for a long time yet, Sakura eagerly paid attention to every word of Professor McGonagall long lecture about the basics of transfiguration, even if she didn't fully grasp some of the vocabulary the elderly witch used.

Like most of the other classes, once the lecture was over, there was a practical section to the lesson. Each person was given a match and instructed to transfigure it into a needle.

Sakura stared at the match with more than a little trepidation. It seemed like she kept having mishaps with fire, and to actually have a match in front of her felt almost like tempting fate. However, the teacher had told everybody to transfigure the match into a needle so, like a good student, Sakura did what she was told.

She held the wand in front of her with a nervous grip and tried to follow the instructions Professor McGonnagal had given. As she did so the same feeling of wrongness that she had felt when she had tried to move the feather in Charms class manifested itself. She tried her best to completely ignore the image of an exuberant Keroberos cheering at a newly acquired succulent takoyaki which kept threatening to break into her consciousness.

The magic easily flowed out of her wand. In fact it came out too easily. The slippery waves of energy almost seemed to have a will of their own and Sakura found that she lacked the precise control she was accustom to when using the Key with the Sakura Cards. Their movements vaguely reminded her of something, but she couldn't spare enough concentration to figure out what. Instead she refocused herself on trying to follow Professor McGonnagal's instructions as closely as possible.

The mana took on a pattern which was both similar to and completely unlike the flows Professor McGonnagal had created earlier when transfiguring her desk. Not knowing what else to do, Sakura continued to wave her wand as she had been instructed. She was rewarded for her efforts when the match took on a definite gray pallor.

"A good start, Kinomoto, but you'll need to try harder," Professor McGonnagal said.

"Okay," Sakura said nodding. She then turned back to the partially transfigured match and redoubled her efforts.

By the end of class nobody had succeeded in the transfiguration. Sakura's final attempt ended with something reminiscent of a needle, but it had a tapered tip that was slightly too blunt to pierce cloth, and rather than an eye there was only a modest indentation in its end. However, despite her incomplete result, hers was the most successful effort of all the students who had succeeded in creating match-needle hybrids.

The class broke with Professor McGonnagal instructing the students to read pages 23-29 of "A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration" and to practice with their matches.

* * *

"How are your classes?" Lisa asked Gloria.

Gloria had "defected" and was sitting at the Ravenclaw table for lunch. Whenever she did so, or whenever her Ravenclaw friends instead met her at the Gryffindor table, she was mercilessly teased by her housemates. Somebody had even cut out a copy of the Ravenclaw house badge drawn on paper and left it on her bed once, although Gloria neither knew who did it nor paid it too much attention.

"Oh, they're fine, although I swear Professor Snape has it out for us. We must have lost at least a dozen points so far," Gloria answered.

"Professor Snape? Are you sure? He doesn't seem like that bad a fellow. He hasn't docked us any points so far. In fact he even gave us few on the first day," Anthony said.

"He's a little strict, but he seems nice," Sakura agreed.

Lisa shook her head at Sakura's usage of the term "nice," but at least agreed with the first half of her description, adding, "Very strict."

"Nice? Professor Snape? What are you talking about? He's the worst. He's always favoring Slytherin, especially that brat Draco, not to mention he's always picking on Harry," Gloria countered.

"I remember hearing that many of the older Gryffindor students dislike him as well. Maybe he just has something against Gryffindor for some reason," Lisa suggested.

Her statement went mostly unheard as Anthony spoke over, Lisa though, having heard a more interesting subject he wanted to talk about. "That's right, you're in the same house as Harry Potter. That must be brilliant. What's he like? Is it true he can cast lightning bolts from his scar and he can't be charmed?"

"No, he's just an ordinary kid. Actually, to tell you the truth," Gloria leaned a little forward and dropped her voice to a whisper, "I don't think he knows much magic at all."

"What?" Lisa whispered back. "I cannot believe it."

"We are talking about the same Harry Potter here, right? The Boy Who Lived, right?" Anthony asked.

"It's true. Apparently he was raised by some muggle cousins. They sound like real dudders," Gloria leaned back and raised her voice again. "Oh, his flying is top class, though. He was able to get on his broom and show up that annoying Draco on his first try. It was really cool."

Lisa and Anthony shared a look with each other. None of the first year students in the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff houses were eager to have anything to do with flying brooms after Sakura's big accident. It had taken them all several days, and countless reassurances by Madam Hooch, before any of them had managed to get their brooms to jump to their hands, let alone to carry them into the air.

Sakura would have shared the look with the other two except she was lost in the conversation. She had hoped to figure out what they were talking about by listening in, but the more she heard the more confused she became. She really hated to interrupt but didn't know how else to find out what was going on. "I'm sorry, but what are you talking about?"

"Oh, Draco's just an annoying sod from Slytherin. He nicked something from one of my housemates and Harry chased after him on a broom," Gloria answered, misunderstanding Sakura's question. "Draco eventually tried to throw it away, but Harry flew forward and caught it out of midair. It was really cool, although now that I think about it, Harry got yelled at by Professor McGonagall afterward. Well, we didn't lose any points, though, so it couldn't have been that bad for him."

"I expect he shall be fine. He is famous, after all, so I doubt they would do anything to him, and after facing down You-Know-Who what could possibly scare him?" Lisa asked.

"So he's famous then, this Harry person?" Sakura tried again.

The incredulous look from Gloria was only matched by a similar look from Lisa and Anthony. "Yeah, didn't you know that? Harry's The Boy Who Lived. That famous wizard. The one who beat You-Know-Who, you know," Anthony said.

"I know who?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, you know who, You-Know-Who," Gloria said. Sakura shook her head.

"The leader of the Death Eater?" Lisa tried. Sakura shook her head again.

"The person who started the Wizarding War 20 years ago?" Anthony tried too. Sakura shook her head yet again.

"Wow. My father said that you people out in the East did not know anything about magic, but I had no idea it was so bad," Lisa said.

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that," Gloria said. "Sakura here did some bloody brilliant spells on the train ride here."

"Yeah. How'd you to that anyway? I tried asking my parents but they hadn't even heard of anything like that crazy book of yours," Anthony added.

"They are just some inn keepers, though," Lisa said dismissively. "There are surely many things they have not heard of before."

"Hey!" Anthony protested.

"Sorry," Lisa said, "but still I doubt they know much about the latest toys, especially international ones."

"Oh, I don't know," Gloria said. "It looked pretty wild to me. I'd never seen anything like that book even with all the stuff I get to see at mom's office, and she's an auror so there's a lot of stuff there."

"Some kind of book? That sounds interesting. Can you show me at some point?" Lisa asked.

"Ahh, I don't think I can," Sakura said. "One of the professors told me I shouldn't use it here. Sorry."

The professor had been Kaho, and she, along with Eriol, had told Sakura not to use the Sakura Cards at Hogwarts before they had come to the school. However, the statement was still true enough.

"I see," Lisa said. The disappointment on her face was obvious.

"Weren't you going to tell me about that Harry person, and that I know something?" Sakura asked, trying to change the subject.

"That's right," Anthony said, suddenly remembering. "Basically about 20 years ago, there was this baddie. Nobody says his name anymore, just in case, you know. They just call him You-Know-Who, because everybody knows him. Supposedly he graduated from here." Then, in a whisper, he added, "They said he was a Slytherin."

"Anyway," Gloria interrupted, "You-Know-Who tried to take over the Ministry of Magic and become ruler of everything. He started killing everybody, even the aurors they sent after him. Eventually a large group came together to fight against him, and it became known as the Wizarding War."

"But one day he tries to kill Harry Potter's family. Nobody is quite sure what happened there. All we know is that both of his parents die, but somehow Harry manages to fight off and defeat You-Know-Who. The same Dark Wizard who had kill the strongest wizards and witches in the world, this little boy beats, and only getting a scar shaped like a lightning bolt on his forehead in return. Everybody knows him as The Boy Who Lived. Apparently there has been a great deal of study in the past few years to try and figure out what happened, but none of the researches or diviners have managed to figure anything out," Lisa concluded.

"Wow," Sakura said.

"I think it's all hogwash myself. If you'd seen him fumbling around in class, you would too. I wasn't expecting him to walk through walls or shoot out lightning bolts or anything, but he just seems so... normal," Gloria said.

"Didn't you say he was raised by some muggle cousins?" Sakura asked. "Isn't it expected to not know much magic then?"

Sakura thought back to her life a few years ago, before that fateful day she had opened a certain strange book and released all of the Clow Cards. Back then her concept of magic had been Tomoyo's ability to buy anything at any time.

"Oh, that's a good point," Gloria said, thinking about it, "but Hermione has muggle parents too. She might be annoying, but she knows as much as anybody. More, actually. I still don't get why she was put in Gryffindor. Heck, I'd bet that even you could out-spell Harry, Sakura, and didn't you grow up with muggle parents?"

Sakura laughed in nervous embarrassment at the suggestion.

"He just seems so... normal," Gloria repeated, shaking her head.

She was tired about talking about Harry Potter. That was all her family ever asked about, too. In an attempt to change the topic she asked, "Anyway, how are your classes going?"

"They're good," Sakura said.

"Except for History of Magic, right, Sakura?" Anthony added.

Sakura let out another nervous laugh.

"Oh? What's wrong with Professor Binns, besides him being incredibly boring?" Gloria asked.

"He's a," Sakura leaned in and finished in a whisper, "ghost."

Gloria had leaned in to hear Sakura's word, and then whispered back, "Yeah, and?"

"And, and, he's a ghost," Sakura said in a slightly louder voice.

"I think Sakura has a problem with ghosts," Lisa explained in an ordinary voice. "I do not understand why though. They are quite agreeable people for the most part. Even Myrtle can be quite reasonable once you get past her screaming, even if I would not go there to... you know..."

Sakura was looking around frantically, as if saying their names would be enough to summon a supernatural attack upon her person.

"She even runs away from Gray Lady, and she barely does anything but stay in the library and help us with our homework," Anthony added.

"Oh, really?" Gloria asked, staring strangely at Sakura.

"They're scary," Sakura explained.

"They are? Why?" Gloria asked.

"They're always floating in the air, and flying through the walls, and showing up in strange places, and getting in the way, and they're scary," Sakura said.

Gloria looked quizzically at Lisa and Anthony. Both held up their hands up in a shrug.

"I don't get it. Why are they scary? They can't even really touch you or do anything. Maybe a poltergeist could be scary, but a ghost?" Gloria asked.

"Because, because, they just are," Sakura stuttered out.

"You're not making any sense," Gloria said. Both Lisa and Anthony shook their heads, having had the same conversation with Sakura more than once in the past.

"They are because they are," Sakura insisted a second time. Intellectually she knew that her friends were probably right and she was being irrational, but by definition that rational explanation did nothing to help her irrational fear.

"Okay," Gloria said hesitantly. "Oh, what about Professor Quirrel? What do you make of him?"

"I don't have a problem with him. He's not a ghost," Sakura said, glad to have the subject changed.

"No, that's not what I meant. What do you think of him? Doesn't he seem kind of strange to you?" Gloria asked.

"Yes. He does seem quite odd," Lisa said.

"They made him a professor, though, so he must know something," Sakura said, rallying to Professor Quirrel's defense.

"Oh, I don't know about that. He always seems scared. Maybe he's afraid he'll be caught and thrown out of Hogwarts," Gloria countered.

"He does? He doesn't seem like that to me. Maybe he's a bit quieter than I'd expect a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to be, but nothing like you say," Anthony said.

"He seems normal enough to me," Sakura said. She could think of a few people back in Japan who had been equally reserved and she didn't think anything was strange about how Professor Quirrel acted. She then added, "He does give me a funny feeling sometimes, though."

"Only a funny feeling?" Gloria asked.

"Yeah, the only thing I notice is," Anthony began.

"That smell!" Lisa and Gloria joined in chorus with Anthony's inevitable conclusion. The students succumbed to a short bout of laughing.

Once they had calmed down a little, Gloria asked, "Really though, he doesn't act like he's always scared around you? In our class he's always shrinking away from people. We've taken to joking that the only defense we'll learn in that class is how to run away."

"No, he doesn't act like that at all around us," Sakura answered. Lisa and Anthony both nodded in agreement.

"Weird," Gloria said.

From there, the conversation drifted on to the various other professors they all had: from the miniature Professor Flitwick, who still looked at Sakura with some suspicion, to the dumpy Professor Sprout. It was interesting to see the different perspectives the different houses had on the different professors, although none of their differing opinions were as diverse as that of Professor Snape and Professor Quirrel.

As lunch was drawing to a close, Gloria had a thought and asked, "Oh, by the way, do you want to go explore the castle this afternoon?"

"Where did you want to go? Nowhere with ghosts, right?" Sakura asked.

"Nowhere in particular. That's why it's called exploring," Gloria answered. "The classes are fine as far as they go, but don't you want to find things out on your own?"

"No thank you," Lisa said. "I am to meet with Wayne so we can study our Astronomy charts, and then I simply must practice for the Charms test coming up."

"Spoken like a true Ravenclaw," Gloria muttered under her breath.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lisa retorted.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all," Gloria said. "How about you two?"

"I need to read five chapters before the next History of Magic class," Anthony said with a grimace.

"I'll come," Sakura said.

"We are supposed to meet up to practice some charms later, right Sakura?" Lisa asked.

"Right, but that wasn't for a few hours, right? In the mean time, exploring the castle sounds like it might be fun," Sakura said.

"That's the spirit," Gloria said. "Maybe you and Hermione should switch houses. She'd fit better in with those two, and you're more like a Gryffindor anyway."

"Just as long as we don't go looking for ghosts," Sakura added as a condition.

"Or maybe not," Gloria concluded.

* * *

The exploration of Hogwarts Castle had been fun, but mostly fruitless. Keroberos had joined Sakura and Gloria during their wanderings through the castle, but the three of them hadn't found too much of note. They had stumbled across two secret-ish passages, but the numerous footprints in the dust on the ground showed that they were far from the darkest secrets in Hogwarts.

The first passage looked like it would be a convenient shortcut between Charms class and Herbology class if the staircases were being particularly uncooperative and they were in a hurry.

The second passage was far more interesting. It was ordinary enough except that it emerged in a hallway directly across from Kaho's office. At that point, Sakura couldn't help but to stop by and say hello, as well as give a more in depth introduction of Gloria than the brief meeting they had had on the Hogwarts Express.

After a brief discussion with Kaho, the two girls and Keroberos wandered off to continue their explorations. Gloria had wanted to examine the third-floor corridor that Professor Dumbledore had said was off-limits during the opening ceremony, but Sakura had steadfastly refused. Gloria hadn't insisted too much, remembering the declaration that the punishment for intruding was a very painful death. She had tried suggesting Keroberos scout ahead for them, but both he and Sakura had refused her on that point as well.

Two hours later, the pair made their way to one of the numerous empty rooms in the basement of Hogwarts Castle to meet Lisa for practice. Gloria had followed Sakura, saying that she was bored and didn't have anything else to do. In honesty, Gloria was also doing very poorly in Charms class, being the third worst student in Gryffindor, and could use all the help she could get. She would never admit that to her friends, though.

The rooms in the basement appeared to be abandoned and were perfect for practicing magic that might ruin a house common room. While none of the staff had actually said they were practice rooms, no classes were ever held in them and nobody yelled at the children for entering the perpetually unlocked rooms. The scorched walls and wooden debris in the corners of the rooms were a comfort to the first year students as well, suggesting that they were actually intended for practice. They ironically also made them worry about what could go wrong with unsupervised magic.

"That's no problem. You're not really unsupervised," Keroberos said, straightening his back.

"Are we not? There is a professor here?" Lisa asked.

"Oh? Where?" Gloria added.

"No, even better. I'm here," Keroberos proudly declared, pointing towards towards himself.

"You?" Lisa and Gloria exclaimed in chorus.

"Kero-chan knows a lot about magic," Sakura reassured the pair.

"You got that right," Keroberos said, seeming to grow an inch taller at the complement.

"What? That pipsqueak?" Gloria asked.

"I do not mean to be rude, but are you really sure he will be able to help?" Lisa asked.

"He learned a lot from watching Clow before and even helped him sometimes, isn't that right, Kero-chan?" Sakura said.

"But he can't even hold a wand. In fact I'd bet even if he could hold a wand he wouldn't be able to use it," Gloria protested.

"I have never heard of one learning magic from a familiar," Lisa agreed.

"I can do plenty of magic. I don't even need a wand either," Keroberos insisted.

"Oh yeah? What kind of magic can you do?" Gloria challenged.

Keroberos, tired of being belittled, grasped the flow of magic which coursed through his body and restored himself to his true form. Unconsciously, Gloria and Lisa took a step back from the suddenly much more intimidating creature. He then generated a fireball and launched it across the room. It impacted against a wall, causing the room to shudder and adding another scorch mark to the solid stone. The tinder on the floor next to where the fireball had hit the wall smoldered and then caught fire.

"Kero-chan!" Sakura exclaimed, hands on her hips, staring at the now full sized magical beast. Both Lisa and Gloria watched in stunned silence as their friend addressed the now much scarier guardian beast. "What did you do that for?"

"I thought it would be easier to show them than argue," Keroberos explained, in a much deeper, more guttural voice.

Lisa and Gloria were both shocked to see Sakura treat the now enormous Keroberos in the exact same manner as the much less intimidating floating plushie from before. It was one thing to watch her interacting with the odd cuddly yellow doll. It was quite another watching her stare down a magical beast which must have outweighed her by at least a factor of three.

"You didn't need to shoot out that fire. What if you had hurt somebody?" Sakura persisted.

"Sorry," Keroberos said, to the surprise of both observers. He then transformed himself back to his more familiar hand-sized form.

"Sorry," Sakura said to the two as well with a small bow. She wasn't completely sure what she was apologizing for, but it felt right to her to do so.

Gloria found her voice first. With a hesitant laugh she said, "Oh, that's alright. It just startled me a bit."

"Yes, nothing to worry about here," Lisa agreed, with an equally hesitant laugh.

"Let's start the practice, okay?" Sakura proposed. The other two slowly nodded and drew out their wands. Both made a resolution to not anger the guardian beast in the future.

"So, what should we do then?" Gloria asked.

"Professor Flitwick said we should keep practicing that wind blowing charm, right?" Sakura asked.

"That is correct. He said that we should try and master the Ventus charm before moving on to those other ones he mentioned in class," Lisa confirmed.

Sakura took a quick look around the room and said, "That means we'll need a table, but I don't see one anywhere."

"Can't you just make one? Like you did on the train?" Gloria asked, pantomiming her hands around in some non-specific magical-like gestures.

"No she can't, and you shouldn't be blabbing about that to everybody either," Keroberos jumped in before Sakura could say anything.

Keroberos flew over to hover over the blonde haired girl and in an intimidating voice said, "You won't go talking about that book to anybody else, right?"

Gloria liked to imagine herself as brave as the next person. Her placement in Gryffindor was proof enough for that. However, after Keroberos's recent display of power, the only thing she could bring herself to do was gulp and say, "Okay."

"Kero-chan!" Sakura chastised her guardian beast a second time.

"But Sakura," Keroberos almost whined, his voice instantly changing from the intimidating to the plaintive. "You still remember what Eriol said right? You're supposed to be careful around here, and we can't have her telling everybody about the cards."

Lisa's curiosity was definitely perked. This was the second time Sakura's magic on the train had come up, and judging by Keroberos's reaction it was obviously a big deal. However, she knew from experience at home when it was a very good idea to not be noticed. She hated the phrase "children should be seen but not heard", but several groundings, and, more annoyingly, missing out important bits of gossip she might otherwise have heard, had drilled its importance into her. Not drawing the attention of a giant fire-breathing winged lion classified in her mind as one such time. She made a mental note to herself to look into what they were talking about another time.

"But you can't go around threatening everybody," Sakura insisted. She then turned to Gloria and gave a perky smile. "I'm sure you won't tell anybody else, right?"

"Uhh, right," Gloria said.

"Now apologize to her, Kero-chan," Sakura insisted.

"Ahh, sorry," Keroberos said, properly chastised.

However, it was a moot point anyway. Sakura couldn't create a table for them to use as she didn't have The Create with her. She kept the Key with her at all times, but the book with all the Sakura Cards was too large to conveniently carry around with her so she frequently left it and the cards it held back in the dorm room, despite Eriol's and Kaho's warnings weeks ago. Keroberos had tried to get her to carry it around with her, but gave up after her constant forgetting of it.

Gloria, meanwhile, looked for a way to change the subject from the uncomfortable turn it had taken, and noticed a stool in the far corner of the room. She pointed and said, "Oh, there's a stool. Let's use that for a table."

"Good idea," Sakura said. The pair went over and picked the stool up between the two of them, moving it to the center of the room.

"We can use this instead of a table, but what should we do about the feathers? I sure don't have any," Gloria asked.

"Hmm..." Sakura said, adopting a thoughtful expression. She then turned to the floating guardian beast. The floating guardian beast... Floating... "Kero-chan..."

The still penitent Keroberos turned at hearing his name called and saw Sakura looking up at him.

"What?" he asked, before noticing the mischievous look on her face. His mind went back through what was just said. Feathers? Sakura looking and sounding mischievous? "Oh no! No way!"

"Come on Kero-chan," Sakura insisted with a glint in her voice. "Consider it your punishment."

Lisa decided this would be a good time to jump in. While she didn't want the attention of a giant fire-breathing winged lion, she considered an annoyed giant fire-breathing winged lion to be an even worse result.

"I have some feathers," she said, interrupting Sakura's slow stalking of the retreating floating plushie. "I even brought some extras, so Gloria can use one too."

Lisa had remembered Sakura's early experiments with the Ventus charm and thought it prudent to bring some spares just in case. This foresight turned out to be quite the auspicious one, considering the unexpected addition of Gloria. She pulled out three feathers from her pocket, tried to smooth them a little, and placed them on the stool.

Keroberos had the three girls make a rough circle around the makeshift table, a feather in front of each. Then, with much less order than in the formal class, each flicked their wand and cried out "Ventus."

The combined results of their attempts was entirely expected: nothing happened. Keroberos gave a silent sigh at the amount of work which was needed and started to tutor them.

"No, no, no, Lisa. You need to, gagghh, how to put this, think more up and less out," Keroberos instructed.

"Gloria, use more energy and less... force? Yeah, force," Keroberos directed to Gloria.

Lisa and Gloria both found that if they thought about what Keroberos was actually saying it made no sense at all and only served to confuse them. If instead they just listened to his instruction without actually thinking about it, despite making little sense, his advice did help in some strange way.

Sakura's tutelage sounded much different to their ears as well. Also, unlike them, Sakura was also asking questions back to Keroberos as if she actually understood what he was driving at.

"No, Sakura, it's a wand you're using now. It's a lot different than the Key," Keroberos said. It was probably not the best idea to talk about the Key and the Sakura Cards around Lisa and Gloria, but Keroberos had concluded that as long as Sakura wasn't actually showing them off it probably wouldn't draw too much attention. Not to mention it was important for Sakura to understand what she was doing before she caused some major injury to herself or others.

"What do you mean different?" Sakura asked. She vaguely remembered asking Eriol a similar question some time ago but couldn't remember what he had said. The only thing she remembered was being confused at the time.

"Ahh... it's... well... The wand is more... wandish, and the Key is more... different," Keroberos stumbled through an explanation.

"What?" Sakura asked. The other two looked at him strangely as well, although more because the hadn't ever heard of this Key, whatever it was.

"I haven't used them so don't really know. Clow just told me that he was doing things differently when he made the Key. More Easternly, I think he said. Just trust me, they're different," Keroberos finally admitted.

Sakura understood that her wand felt a lot different than the Key, even if she couldn't put it into words, but Keroberos didn't seem to be able to help explain what she intuitively felt. She resolved to ask Eriol next time she saw him, or possibly ask Kaho the next time she dropped by her office to talk. Hopefully, this time Sakura would be able to understand the explanation.

"Just try to think more like The Move, less like The Windy," Keroberos continued.

"But that doesn't make sense," Sakura protested. "The feather is supposed to blow away, isn't it?"

"Trust me," Keroberos said. "The Move is more correct for this charm."

Sakura tried again, before being abruptly interrupted by Keroberos. "No! Not like The Firey, Sakura."

"Hoeee..." Sakura lamented.

Lisa turned to Gloria with a questioning look. Gloria shook her head in response to the implied question and shrugged. The pair then went back to their feathers and tried to think more up and less out and to use more energy and less force respectively.

After an hour of practice, their attempts at following their instructions bore fruit. Whether it was Keroberos's help or just the endless repetition, all three had managed to get their feathers to move, although only a few inches in the case of Gloria. They succeeded just in time too. Dinnertime was rapidly approaching, and none of them were eager to go to bed on an empty stomach.

As they were cleaning up, Lisa turned to Sakura and said, "You are so lucky to have a familiar like Keroberos, Sakura. Cannon cannot talk, let alone teach me any magic."

Hearing his name called, Keroberos pulled himself away from plans about how to sneak into the dining hall. He said, "You hear that, Sakura? You hear that, Sakura?"

"I heard, Kero-chan. Didn't I always say I was lucky to have a friend like you?" Sakura said as she and Lisa returned the stool to its starting location.

"And friends help each other, right?" Keroberos continued.

Sakura sensed a trap, but played along. "Of course they do."

"So you'll help me get into the dining hall, right?" Keroberos pressed.

"Ahh..." Sakura hesitated.

"I am not sure familiars are even allowed in there," Lisa said.

"How could you? After all I did for you too," Keroberos said towards Lisa.

"Oh, why not?" Gloria asked. "It sounds like it will be fun, and Keroberos did help us today, didn't he?"

"I suppose so," Sakura said hesitantly.

"Yeah, I did help you didn't I? And it'll be fun, right? What do you say, Sakura?" Keroberos asked.

Sakura had a feeling that she would regret it, but said, "I guess we can try."

* * *

Sakura was sitting in Kaho's office. Both were enjoying a spot of tea with the other. Enjoying a spot of milk tea to be precise, that being the preferred way that they drank it in the United Kingdom. Sakura still didn't like the harsh bite of the local variety they used, but a generous amount of milk and sugar smoothed it out considerably. Keroberos sat on the table, not drinking any tea but taking great enjoyment from the accompanying cookies.

"It's a lot of fun. There's lots of new things everywhere. I still don't like the ghosts, though," Sakura said in response to one of Kaho's question.

"That must be bad for you. Especially Peeves, I'm sure," Kaho said. She found him mostly harmless herself, but she also knew Peeves also didn't focus nearly as much attention on the adults as the children. Argus Filch was the only adult she knew of who had a serious issue with Peeves, and that was more because he had to clean up after him than anything personal. "You might be able to ask the Bloody Baron to help you. He seems to be able to keep Peeves in line."

Another option would have been to help Peeves with his pranks, like the Weasley twins did, but Kaho couldn't support that way of dealing with the poltergeist. Not only that, she didn't think Sakura had it in her to act that way.

"He's a ghost though, right?" Sakura asked. She still couldn't imagine herself voluntarily talking to a ghost.

"Yes. That would be a problem, wouldn't it? Then the only advice I can really give is to ignore him and hope he bothers somebody else," Kaho said. She felt bad that she couldn't provide any other help, but even the professors had problems dealing with Peeves at times.

Sakura gave a shudder at the thought of the ectoplasmic terror. "Okay. Besides that everything is good. I do miss everybody back home, though. Father, Tomoyo, Syaoran, Yukito. Even Toya." Sakura said the last with a sour face.

She had been painfully homesick at first in Reed Manor, but she had gotten over most of it by now and just had a general loneliness by this point.

"I haven't been able to write them or call them or anything since coming here," Sakura continued. She had asked some of the older students about phones, but they had just looked at her funny and said they didn't know what she was talking about. Even if she could find a phone, the cost of international calls meant she probably couldn't afford to use it anyway.

"You haven't written them? That's unlike you," Kaho said. She took a sip of tea.

"I haven't seen any postboxes anywhere," Sakura explained.

Kaho gave a gentle laugh, then said, "That's not how the mail works around here. I'm surprised Keroberos didn't tell you anything."

Sakura turned to look at Keroberos, who quickly defended himself by saying, "Don't look at me. I don't know anything about this either." Both he and Sakura turned to look at Kaho with questioning looks on their faces.

"Over here in the magical world, letters are usually delivered by owl. The wizard or witch will give a letter to an owl familiar who will deliver it to the person it is intended for," Kaho explained.

"What? You expect me to fly all the way across the world? How am I supposed to do that?" Keroberos asked.

"But what about people who don't have owls, like Linda?" Sakura asked. She put her teacup against her lips again for another sip before reaching over for a cookie. It had been much easier living at Reed Manor. Just drop a letter in the box in the front of the house and it was all taken care of, although she had had to get Kaho's help before she had learned how to address the envelope.

"There are a lot of other ways to send letters, but none of them would really work if you are trying to send them to Japan," Kaho said. She thought for a second then suggested, "The best way might be to send them via Royal Mail. You could send a letter to the closest post office, and then have the muggle mail system deliver it. They're a lot better at international things anyway."

"But then how do I get these letters to the post office?" Sakura asked.

"I suppose you could have Keroberos deliver them there," Kaho said. Then turning to address Keroberos, Kaho explained, "The post office isn't that far away so you should be able to manage it without too much trouble. It may be a bit tricky to deliver the letters without being seen, but I'm sure you can figure something out."

"You can count on me," Keroberos said proudly, glad to have avoided the impossible task of flying to and from Japan on his own. His gesture of bravado would have been much more impressive if the cookie he was still holding hadn't flung a few crumbs across the table. "So, how do I get out of here to deliver these letters then?"

"I actually don't know," Kaho admitted. "I never looked into how the owls get in and out of the castle, but it can't be that hard. All of the owls seem to figure it out when they get here. Why not just follow one of them?"

"Great, I got to follow a bunch of birds," Keroberos complained. In truth it wouldn't be that bad. He had gotten to know the various familiars in Ravenclaw Tower when he hadn't felt like wandering around the castle, and the two owls he shared the room with seemed nice enough. Alphred seemed nice enough as well, once they had reached an understanding between them. It just felt like it was somehow degrading to him to be lumped together with those animals.

"But then how will they send their letters back to me?" Sakura asked. "Can they mail them back here?"

"That is a problem. Muggles can't come to Hogwarts. They don't even know it exists," Kaho conceded. She thought a few seconds before saying, "Maybe they can send them to Eriol then."

Sakura swallowed the mouthful of tea she had sipped, then asked "But how will he get them here then? Can an owl really fly that far? It took us a long time on the train to get here."

"That won't be a problem. He can just send them here via the floo network," Kaho said. She then put down her cup of tea and picked up one of the cookies for herself.

"Floo network? What's that?" Keroberos asked.

"It's a big network across the country. It's kind of like the telephone system, except uses magic instead of electricity. It's even better because you can use it to send things and even to teleport," Kaho explained.

"Wow. Does this mean I can visit Eriol then?" Sakura asked.

"I'm afraid not, Sakura," Kaho said. She saw the blossoming hope in Sakura's face quickly drain away. "Students aren't allowed to leave campus in their first year. You can talk to him if you want to, though, and we can have everybody mail their letters to him and he can forward them here."

Kaho came to a sudden realization and said, "Wait, I'm being silly. If you give me your letters I can give them to Eriol to send out."

"So I don't need to deliver any letters then?" Keroberos asked for confirmation. He finished his cookie with a large bite, shoving the rest of it in his mouth.

"That's correct Keroberos. You won't need to deliver any letters," Kaho confirmed.

"Thank you very much," Sakura said.

The prospect of writing home, and more importantly hearing back what everybody back home was doing, so excited her that Sakura only half paid attention to the rest of the conversation while Kaho asked if she was making lots of new friends. In her mind Sakura was already figuring out what she wanted to include in the various letters she was about to write. She was so preoccupied that she even forgot to ask Kaho how her wand was different from the Key.

The conversation quickly drew to an end and Sakura thanked Kaho for the tea. She then left the room almost at a run, preparing to write several long letters. She had a lot to tell Tomoyo, her father, Syaoran, and all of her friends: her first days at Hogwarts, her mishaps with Professor Flitwick, Gloria, Lisa, Anthony, and countless other topics.

She forecasted a long night of writing that evening, and that wasn't even including her homework. She looked forward to the task ahead.

* * *

Last Updated: February 5, 2013


	7. 7: Sakura's Exciting Halloween Feast

Chapter 7: Sakura's Exciting Halloween Feast

Halloween was approaching and Sakura was finally getting accustomed to what passed for ordinary life at a magical school. The classes were engaging to her and she was learning new things every day. She was still outstanding, at least relative to the other first year Ravenclaw students, in Transfiguration and in Herbology.

Much like how Sakura found a similarity between cooking and potion making, she found that many of her skills with mundane gardening transferred to this world as well, putting her at an advantage over many of her classmates. Herbology still had a lot of what seemed to her to be arbitrary facts and procedures to memorize, but, unlike in Potions class, she didn't need to remember which hand to use when pruning a belladonna plant.

By far the class which was strangest for Sakura was in fact Potions class. On the surface, this was the class she was doing the best in. She was rarely called out and corrected by Professor Snape as she mixed her concoctions in class. However, this did not seem to be because she was better at following instructions than her classmates in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Sakura deviated from procedure as much as anybody else when the instructions were so esoteric or nonsensical as to be un-rememberable to her. Despite this, though, after the first few weeks, Professor Snape would for some reason overlook her deviations for the most part. Sakura could almost have thought that Professor Snape had given up on her, and thus ignored her mishaps, except that he did sometimes correct her. Furthermore, when he did so, he spoke with much less scorn than when he corrected her classmates. She hadn't even noticed this until one day when Anthony had asked her what she had done to get this special treatment. Sakura didn't understand it, but wasn't going to question her good fortune.

Sakura's good fortune didn't extend to Charms class however. Despite her experiences with the Sakura Cards, or maybe because of them, she had a great deal of difficulty getting her wand act correctly. Usually she ended up not being to accomplish anything in class, the wand absolutely refusing to do what she wanted it to. The few times had tried to force her wand to behave like she wanted it to had only caused it to behave in unpredictable ways. She had set a several objects aglow in class and once somehow even managed to get a wooden pencil to take root into her desk and sprout a flower. The flower incident especially had provided a great deal of amusement to the other students in class and a great deal of annoyance to Professor Flitwick, who made a comment about it not being Transfiguration or Herbology class. With Kerobero's help and a lot of practice, though, Sakura was slowly but steadily getting better with her charms. Her mishaps were becoming less frequent, although she still was one of the worst performing students in Ravenclaw.

Flying class also proved one of the more difficult classes for Sakura. She was always nervous when approaching a broom and had more than once questioned the importance of learning to use one. Sakura wasn't unusual in this attribute, though; Madam Hooch had almost written off this year's Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first year students as potential Quiddtich players. Then again, given what happened on their first day of class, she didn't blame them. At least the Gryffindor class had a few excellent fliers this year, including the famous Harry Potter of course. The Slytherin first years had a few students with potential as well. Madam Hooch had even mentioned to Professor Snape that he should keep an eye on Draco Malfoy as a potential Quiddtich player for next year.

Throughout the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students' continued reluctance and questioning, Madam Hooch maintained her insistence that everybody needed to learn how to fly on a broom. When asked why she answered that one could not simply apparate or travel by floo everywhere, and that being able to fly was a necessity in modern life. This reasoning made no sense to Sakura, who could fly well enough on her own. However, when Sakura asked why they couldn't just fly without the brooms, Madam Hooch had thought she was just being difficult and docked a point from Ravenclaw in punishment, earning Sakura a set of glares from her classmates. She still didn't understand, but decided that it might be better to ask Kaho or Eriol.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts class was also going poorly for Sakura, although not nearly as badly as Flying class or Charms class. Her being in the hospital wing during the first day had automatically made her feel like she was starting off on the back-foot compared to the rest of her classmates, even though everybody assured her that she hadn't missed anything important. More significant than that, though, it was hard for her to take Professor Quirrel and his classes very seriously. Every time he brought a threat up, Sakura's immediate internal reaction would be "just use The Shield, then either bind it with something like The Windy, run away with something like The Jump, or destroy it with something like The Earthy." The fact that she already knew a course of action which she was sure would work made it so that whenever Professor Quirrel would give the more specific response to a threat Sakura would only half pay attention to it. It didn't help that the strange feelings she got from Professor Quirrel hadn't diminished in the slightest from when she had first met the wizard.

Unlike Charms class and Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Astronomy class was as much as anything a disappointment to Sakura. She wasn't having problems with it as such. Professor Sinistra was a fine teacher and the material was normal enough, albeit tedious. The main reason Sakura was disappointed was that she was somehow expecting more from the class than what it actually was. She had literally used the power of the moon with the Clow Cards in the past, and still used the power of the stars with the Sakura Cards to enact what on the surface seemed impossible. She knew what potential the heavenly bodies held. Memorization of planetary movements and constellations names somehow didn't live up to that potential in her opinion. Not only that, the novelty of being able to stay awake late once a week quickly wore off and now she much preferred being in a warm bed than the cold castle at midnight.

Amazingly, the class Sakura was learning the most in was the History of Magic class. This wasn't because the class was particularly well taught, because she had any particular interest, or because she had any particular skill in the class. In fact, as far as Professor Binns was concerned, his only vague impression of the girl was of her being a poor student with a tendency to shake who seemed to be suffering from a touch of insomnia as of late. Then again, Professor Binn's vague impression of the vast majority of students in Hogwarts was that they were poor students with a major tendency to not get enough sleep at night, not that he had much of an impression of any of the students, including Sakura.

In fact, the reason Sakura was learning the most in the History of Magic class was that what she was learning from it wasn't really focused on the history of magic as such. Instead it had almost become a Ghosts Really Aren't Scary class for her and she was learning, albeit slowly and unconsciously, that despite Toya's influences during her early life that ghosts really weren't all that bad. She could easily imagine somebody like Peeves spiriting her away to an eternity of unimaginable torture, but Professor Binns was simply too uninteresting to be scary. In fact, if it hadn't been for her innate fear of ghosts, she might have even considered him boring.

As it was, though, she did have an innate fear of ghosts, so she was always on edge around Professor Binns. A side-effect of this was that it kept her wide awake during class, even if not always fully attentive to what was Professor Binns was officially trying to teach. This had the strange effect of putting her ahead of at least half of the other students.

This natural advantage was slowly wearing away as time went on, though. The longer Sakura spent in class, the less concerned she became with the fact that Professor Binns was a ghost. He almost had the same effect that allergy shots had, where modest innocuous interactions with this ghost were dulling the effect and slowly building her immunity. Between her thrice weekly sessions with Professor Binns and the countless other ghosts floating around the castle, her fear of ghosts was slowly disappearing.

It was a long, arduous process. While going months without being spirited away didn't prove anything, Nearly Headless Nick may turn on her at any moment and almost but not quite decapitate her for example, she was getting more tolerant. She didn't even flinch anymore when seeing one, as long as she was expecting it there, and as long as it wasn't Peeves. She really hated Peeves. Hated and feared Peeves.

In fact, Sakura had even caught herself falling asleep occasionally to the monotonous droning of Professor Binns when she had let her mind drift. Ironically, the more she learned in History of Magic class, the worse she did in the opinion of Professor Binns.

Appropriately enough, it was Professor Binns's homework assignment which led to Sakura's getting to know the other major ghost who was indirectly helping her get over her fear of them: Gray Lady, the de facto Ravenclaw house ghost.

Unlike most of the other ghosts in the castle, Sakura never saw Gray Lady floating around the corridors. In fact, not including that first night at the start-of-term banquet, she had never surprised Sakura with a sudden unexpected appearance. Gray Lady was the most predictable ghost in all of Hogwarts, even more so than Professor Binns, spending almost all of her time in the castle library.

Sakura had gotten to know Gray Lady the same way every other students had: via a homework assignment. Professor Binns had assigned the class to write a short essay on Merlin. Most of the students found this incredibly easy, having grown up with stories of the famous wizard. Sakura wasn't so lucky, barely recognizing the name.

She had asked Anthony for some help, but had received less information from him than could be desired.

"He was a really, really powerful wizard. He lived a long time ago and helped King Arthur found Camelot," Anthony tried to explain.

"Who?" Sakura asked.

"You know, King Arthur," Anthony repeated, pronouncing the name louder and more enunciated this time.

"Who is King Arthur?" Sakura asked, her tongue slightly tripping over the name, much like most English words the first time she tried to say them.

"You don't know who King Arthur is?" Anthony asked. Every time he thought Sakura couldn't surprise him any more she would either do something or not know something that would leave him shocked.

"No, I don't," Sakura admitted.

"Well, King Arthur was this really famous and powerful king from a long time ago, and Merlin helped him found his kingdom, Camelot. Did I mention it was a really long time ago?" Anthony tried to explain.

"Hoeee..." Sakura said.

The rest of the conversation just went downhill from there. Sakura found out that Merlin lived a long time ago, was famous, was powerful, was famously powerful, and lived a long time ago. She considered asking Lisa, Linda, or some other student for help, but feared doing so would be equally uninformative. She also wasn't eager to reveal her ignorance of the famously powerful wizard, given Anthony's reaction.

Sakura tried asking Keroberos for help as well, but he said he didn't know anything about any wizard named Merlin either. Keroberos did have the idea of checking the "A History of Magic" textbook, but when she did so all she could find were a few short paragraphs confirming that Merlin was powerful, famous, lived a long time ago, and was exceptionally important to the founding of Camelot. There were some of the highlights of his life in the book as well, but Sakura felt like she would need more details before writing her essay.

Keroberos then suggested that Sakura go to the castle library to try and find out more about the wizard. It seemed like a good idea, which is how the pair ended up surrounded by more books than Sakura could count. Keroberos had planted himself in one of Sakura's pockets to go along for the ride, his head sticking out like some bright accessory to her robe.

At least it seemed like a good idea to visit the library at the time. Once in the library, Sakura quickly found herself lost. Not lost in the physical sense, the exit being literally in plain sight, but lost in the figurative sense. Without a computer, or even a card catalog, she didn't know where to start.

She was able to locate the librarian, Madam Pince, fairly easily, but she proved less than helpful. She had just shushed Sakura, multiple times, when Sakura had tried to ask for help. In the end, Sakura just didn't have the heart to interrupt the woman and demand attention. She wandered away and left Madam Pince poring over some tattered old books with a scowl on her face.

It was while Sakura was looking around in confusion that Gray Lady approached her and Keroberos, slowly drifting towards them from across the room.

"Are you alright dear? Do you need any help?" Gray Lady asked, in a voice spoken a bit louder from a bit farther away than was typical for a library.

Sakura was very good. She didn't even flinch at the sight of the ghost. She didn't flinch very much, at least. She responded by saying, "Y..yes... I mean no."

"Are you sure? If you don't mind my saying, you look a bit lost," Gray Lady said. She drifted a bit closer, but when Sakura took a step back she kept her distance.

"I'm l..looking for a book. About Merlin," Sakura admitted.

"Merlin? I'd wager that that's for an essay for Professor Binns," Gray Lady said. Professor Binns barely changed from year to year. He had been assigning the same essay to his class for over a decade. She never did find out how he actually read the students' essays, though, or indeed read any of the homework he assigned.

Sakura hesitantly nodded, causing Gray Lady to continue by saying, "I know the just the perfect book for you."

Gray Lady started leading Sakura to a side shelf, but stopped when she noticed Sakura wasn't following her.

"I'm afraid you'll need to follow me. I can't pick it up myself after all," Gray Lady said, gesturing towards her translucent hands.

Sakura was hesitant, but eventually Keroberos's prodding caused her to follow the ghost. She kept her distance as best she could as she did so.

Gray Lady floated down one of the side shelves, completely identical to all of the others as far as Sakura could tell, and drifted down to point at a thin book on a shelf close to Sakura's eye level. Where a normal adult might have leaned over or knelt down, Gray Lady simply floated halfway into the ground.

"This book should be perfect for you," Gray Lady said.

Sakura didn't approach.

"Come on then. Have a look at least," Gray Lady said, beckoning with her other hand.

Sakura shook her head.

"Come now. There's no need to be afraid. I won't harm you," Gray Lady said. She was tempted to laugh at the idea, but thought that it might not make the best impression so managed to hold it in.

"Yeah, come on Sakura. There's nothing to be afraid of," Keroberos said, continuing his coaxing of Sakura.

Sakura approached slowly and carefully, just in case Gray Lady grew horns or something. When she got close enough she saw the ghost was pointing at a thin book titled "The Great Wizard Merlin."

"This book should be enough for your essay for Professor Binns. However, if you would like more help, do not hesitate to call," Gray Lady said, and then floated away, carefully moving away from Sakura rather than towards her, or worse through her.

Once Gray Lady was safely gone, Keroberos whispered to Sakura, "She seems friendly enough."

Sakura didn't respond as she picked up the book and walked over to a table. The book was perfect for her task. It had large print with plenty of pictures and described the highlights of Merlin's life without getting bogged down in details or using overly complicated words.

Despite the help, Sakura was still skeptical of Gray Lady. She was a ghost, after all.

This skepticism faded over the next few weeks. She'd gone to the library for a few other assignments and to look up some things. Each time she received a great deal of help from Gray Lady, no matter if she was looking for some books, if she needed help with her homework, or if she just wanted some general information about the castle.

Madam Pince might have been the official librarian of Hogwarts but she was always so cold and unapproachable that the students felt more comfortable asking Gray Lady for help, which was a cause of constant annoyance for Madam Pince who frequently tried to shush them into silence when they spoke too loudly. To Madam Pince, any sound above a page turn was too loud.

Indeed, it almost seemed like Gray Lady was both the unofficial librarian and the unofficial tutor of Hogwarts. Sakura could frequently see her leading a student to a book on the shelves or helping a student with a particularly difficult problem set. More often than not it seemed like Gray Lady was helping a Ravenclaw student, but that could have just been because there were far more of them in the library than the other three houses combined at any given time.

It might have just been her imagination, but Sakura almost thought that Gray Lady would make it a point to seek her out and talk to her as well. Despite herself, Sakura found herself growing to like Gray Lady. She provided so much help to Sakura and was always so friendly that Sakura couldn't help but reciprocate her feelings. Sakura was even starting to find excuses to go to the library just to talk to Gray Lady, even when there wasn't anything she needed to do there. Then again, it did seem like most of the Ravenclaw students spent more of their time in the castle library than the students of the other houses did, even if most didn't go out of their way to engage with the house ghost.

Given all of this, it was easy for Lisa to find Sakura in the library. Lisa was there trying to complete a homework assignment for Herbology class. She had fortunately found an upperclassman who had been willing to spend a few minutes explaining the key differences between growing lavender and growing roses, so she was finally able to complete her problem set with dinnertime just around the corner.

The blonde-haired girl went searching for her friend and easily found her talking in whispers to Gray Lady in the center of the library. She approached just in time to hear Sakura whisper, "Ehh? So does the chamber really exist then?"

"Who knows? If it does, nobody has ever found it. The rumors are just passed down from year to year like so many family heirlooms," Gray Lady said. "It's like... But I'm being rude and ignoring another guest. Hello Lisa."

Sakura looked behind her and likewise greeted her friend, saying, "Hello Lisa."

"Hello," Lisa answered. "I am sorry to interrupt but I was wondering if Sakura wanted to go and get some supper. You do not want to miss the Halloween feast, do you?"

"That's right. That's today isn't it?" Sakura said. There had been a steady build up over the past week, but talking about the rumors of Hogwarts had so distracted her that the event had completely slipped her mind. "I'm sorry but I need to go."

"I completely understand. I do tend to forget such minor detail, not having to eat myself. However, I remember how important it was in my old life, so I shan't detain you," Gray Lady said.

"Excuse me," Lisa said.

"Goodbye," Sakura said at the same time.

The two girls then turned away and walked off. Meanwhile, Gray Lady drifted up into the air to see if anybody was planning on skipping both dinner and the festivities to stay in the library.

* * *

Sakura and Lisa found their places in the Great Hall, surrounded by a plethora of Halloween decorations spread about. They finally got to see the culmination of the buildup for the past week. The look of the Great Hall had slowly been changing as the various paraphernalia had appeared; one day a series of hollowed-out pumpkins would be laid out, and the next day dark decorations would suddenly line the walls.

It had all reached a fitting climax for Halloween. The banquet tables were covered with golden plates reflecting the flickering light of hundreds of candles in hollow pumpkins, which in turn cast ominous shadows all across the darkened room. This was accentuated by the flight of thousands of bats flying around the ceiling which occasionally dove down to ground level for some unknown reason.

With a gesture from Professor Dumbledore, the golden plates were filled with food, much like during the start-of-term banquet on Sakura's first night at Hogwarts. Also, much like that banquet, Sakura quickly gathered up a plateful of food and prepared to enjoy what promised to be quite the delicious feast. Right when she was about to bite in to the piece of bread she had in her hand, though, she was interrupted, although this time by a more mundane source than the translucent figure of Gray Lady.

Lisa turned to Sakura and asked, "I hope it is not rude, but I have been meaning to ask you, what is a dakimas?"

"A dakimas? What's that?" Sakura asked back.

"That is what I am asking you. I noticed you always say that before you eat. 'Eat a dakimas' or something like that. What is a dakimas?" Lisa asked.

"Hoe?" Sakura asked in confusion. Between Lisa's accent and Sakura's saying "itadakimasu" out of habit, she didn't understand the question.

Before Lisa could probe further, though, they noticed a growing commotion in the hall. Professor Quirrel was sprinting towards the staff table in the front, clearly fearful of something. As he collapsed against the table in front of Professor Dumbledore, the whole room had gone silent except for the fluttering of leathery wings above. In this relative quiet it was easy for Sakura and Lisa hear him gasp out, "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."

His message delivered, Professor Quirrel fell to the floor in a dead faint.

The uproar from the students was instantaneous.

Sakura barely noticed it, though, as a lancet of panic struck through her. She thought back to her classes in Defense Against the Dark Arts. What was the proper way to deal with a troll? Had they even talked about them in class? She thought as fast as she could, but her mind kept going in circles and she completely drew a blank.

Her thinking, as well as the clamor in the room, was abruptly interrupted when Professor Dumbledore exploded several purple firecrackers from the tip of his wand, finally quieting the room enough for him to be heard.

"Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!" He announced.

"Ravenclaws! This way!" Thomas shouted, trying to be heard over the commotion. Luckily, Thomas was notably tall, so with his raised hand everybody in the house could see him. "Penelope, you and Richard stay behind and make sure there are no stragglers! Everybody else, this way! Stick together! No reason to fear any troll! Keep up!"

Thomas, along with a couple of prefects, led the Ravenclaw students out one of the side doors and down a well lit hallway. The two named prefects lagged behind as instructed, hiding their fear of the troll admirably. The tension in the air was palpable, hanging over the crowd of students like a heavy blanket.

With the mind-startling shock out of the way and the bustle around her temporarily calmed, Sakura took a moment to collect herself. She remembered her basic generic plan: use the Sakura Cards to defend herself and fight off whatever threat happened to confront her. She patted her robe frantically, checking if she had actually brought the cards with her before she had left for the library earlier in the day. Once she confirmed their weight in her pocket, she immediately relaxed.

Sakura thanked her good fortune that she had happened to bring the Sakura Cards with her today rather than leaving them in her dorm room. She then gave a quick look left and right to make sure nobody was watching, clutched the Key hanging around her neck, and chanted as quickly and quietly as she could in Japanese, "Key which hides the powers of stars, show your true power before me. Under the contract, Sakura commands you. Release!"

She withheld her traditional flashy movements, not wanting to draw attention to herself, and simply let the Key expand in her hand. She then pulled out the book which contained all of the Sakura Cards and held it in her other hand at the ready, already planning what she would do if the troll were to suddenly appear. She didn't want to break the restriction Eriol and Kaho had placed on her about using the cards in Hogwarts, but thought they would understand given the circumstances.

Sakura gave another surreptitious look around to see if anybody had seen her readying the Key. If anybody had noticed either her actions, or the sudden appearance of the large bright pink Key and the equally bright pink book in her hands, they gave no indication. Most likely all the other students were as distracted with the idea of a troll appearing in their midst as Sakura was and were more interested in the faint shadows lining the hallway than their fellow students.

Despite the confidence she had felt in class, Sakura was worried. It was one thing to abstractly think about fighting off a theoretical magical threat in the safety of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, it was quite another to actually be faced with the imminent threat in person. She had also never thought about what she would do if surrounded by several students during an attack, who would act as bystanders at best and as obstacles at worst. She found the prospect of actually facing the troll daunting, even as well equipped as she was, and she worried about what might happen.

"A troll," Lisa whispered to Sakura as loudly as she dared. "How do you think it got in?"

"I don't know," Sakura whispered back, foregoing facing her friend in favor of her continued vigilance of the hallways. "Didn't that book say that some trolls are found in forests? Maybe it wandered it?"

"Shh..." one of the boys in front of them whispered.

"Trolls usually do not wander around settlements. They do not like to leave the wilderness. What if somebody brought it into the castle?" Lisa suggested.

"Why would anybody do that?" Sakura asked.

"SHHH..." the boy whispered again. "Do you want the troll to hear you?"

The two girls decided the boy was probably right and spent the rest of the walk to Ravenclaw Tower in vigilant silence.

The trip to the tower seemed much longer than usual. It felt unnatural for such a large crowd of students to be walking in almost complete silence, and every shadow, no matter how small, was carefully inspected by dozens of eyes lest it hide the troll. Whether by luck or because they had felt the seriousness of the situation as well, the castle ghosts gave the group a wide berth and did not appear.

Sakura fidgeted with the Key and the Sakura Cards the entire way.

It was a relief to everybody, especially to the prefects, even if they didn't let their nervousness show, when the familiar door to Ravenclaw Tower came into view. Thomas rushed forward in front of the crowd and gave the knocker a very quick knock.

The knocker announced its riddle, "What charm can you cast on a heavy barrel to make it lighter?"

"A Lumos Maxima charm," Thomas answered immediately. "Now open up. Quickly now. It's an emergency."

The door obligingly opened up, revealing the quiet empty Ravenclaw common room. It looked more inviting than Sakura had ever seen it before.

"Everybody through! Quickly now!" Thomas announced, standing aside. His fellow students didn't need a second prompting and almost stampeded into the room. "Careful now! One at a time! No shoving! That means you too Duncan!"

Once safely inside the dorms, Sakura and Lisa made their way to where a cluster of first year students had already congregated. As they approached Anthony, who was embroiled in a conversation with both Terry and Michael, they heard him say, "But trolls never go wandering around humans on their own."

"Oh yeah? What about that incident in Hogsmead last year?" Terry asked.

"What incident?" Sakura asked, joining the ongoing discussion.

"There was a troll which went on a rampage in Hogsmead last year. My sister told me all about it," Terry explained excitedly. "It completely destroyed the bank and a bar, and even ate two children. It took a squad of a dozen aurors to finally take it down."

"Really?" Lisa asked. "That sounds quite odd, especially for a single troll to do on its own."

"Yeah, that sounds strange," Anthony agreed. "If it just happened last year, how come I never heard of it then?"

"It's true. My sister told me all about it when I asked her about Hogwarts," Terry said.

"Last year?" Linda asked, drawn to the conversation much like Sakura and Lisa had been earlier. "My brother didn't tell me anything like that. He did say there were some pranksters who were going around breaking things, though. They never figured out who did it, but the staff called everybody together for a big lecture. Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall were so cross, he said."

"No, it really happened," Terry insisted. "There was a giant, 50-foot troll, who had tree trunks for legs and carried a giant ax made of human bone."

"I'm pretty sure that trolls don't grow that big," Michael said.

"How would you make an ax that big out of human bone?" Anthony asked.

The rest of the conversation consisted of Terry trying to tell everybody the increasingly wild stories of this troll that his sister had told him about, and the other first year students trying to convince him that what he said couldn't possibly be true. Neither side made any progress.

After a fair bit of time arguing, the prefect Penelope interrupted them by saying that the troll had been subdued, everything was in order, but they were going to finish the feast in Ravenclaw Tower so everybody should head to the common room before all the food ran out.

"Say, Penelope, was there a giant troll attack in Hogsmead last year?" Anthony asked.

"A troll attack? Not that I've heard of," Penelope said.

"So there wasn't a giant 50-foot troll who went around eating children?" Sakura asked for confirmation.

"A 50-foot troll? I guess you haven't gotten to that part of your studies yet. Trolls never grow much taller than 15 feet. Why do you ask?" Penelope asked.

"No reason in particular," Lisa said, then addressing the other first year students said, "Let us return to the common room and complete our supper."

"It really happened," Terry muttered, and sulked all the way back the interrupted feast.

* * *

The Great Hall was almost back to normal. The only indication that Halloween had ever occurred were some leftover pumpkins which nobody expected to survive the day. As quickly as the Halloween decorations had gone up, the fastidiousness of Argus Filch guaranteed they would all come down much faster.

Sakura looked around the room a bit before deciding to join Gloria for lunch. Lisa was skipping the meal to get some last minute Astronomy studying in with Wayne, and Anthony was having lunch again with Terry and Michael. She could have joined them, but they were already half finished eating so the timing would have been a bit awkward.

Gloria was sitting by herself, making it easy to find a seat next to her Gryffindor friend. She walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down without notice or fanfare. The first few times she had crossed tables there had been some teasing by a couple of first year students, much like when Gloria had first sat at the Ravenclaw table, but by this point she had crossed houses enough times that it wasn't too unexpected. In fact, Sakura had even gotten to know several of the Gryffindor students, even if she wasn't friends with them as such.

"Hello Gloria," Sakura said as she approached the table. She then gave a small wave to Lavender, a girl with long wavy hair, as she took a seat. Lavender nodded back before resuming her conversation with Parvati, a girl with long black hair who was the identical twin of Padma in Ravenclaw.

After performing her customary pre-meal preparations, Sakura reached over for a bread roll. As she did so, she said to Gloria, "Exciting day yesterday, wasn't it? With the troll and everything?"

"Yeah. Oh, did you hear the news?" Gloria asked before finishing her own bread roll.

"No. What news?" Sakura asked.

"About the troll," Gloria explained.

"I didn't hear anything special about the troll. All I heard was what one of our prefects told us last night. She said that the professors had taken care of everything and that everything was alright," Sakura said.

"Well I heard that it was actually a bunch of students who finished the troll off," Gloria said, before adding with a hint of pride in her voice, "Gryffindor students at that."

"Really? What happened?" Sakura asked.

"You know how we all went back to our dorms after Professor Quirrel ran in to the room? When we got back, after a few minutes everybody starts to notice that Harry's gone missing. He's a pretty big deal so people tend to pay attention to him, you know?" Gloria said.

Sakura nodded, allowing Gloria to continue, "Anyway, the prefects were all in a tizzy, looking all around the dorms and asking if anybody had seen him. They were about to head out to find some professors and look for Harry when Hermione comes into the common room."

"Hermione? Isn't that the girl you're always telling us about?" Sakura asked.

"You've been talking about me? I hope they've been good things. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way," a girl walking behind Gloria said. She had bushy brown hair and her front teeth were a bit larger than they should have been. Sakura fought the impulse to stare at her.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sakura Kinomoto," Sakura said in reply.

"Nice to meet you. Mind if I join you? The table's a bit crowded," Hermione asked.

"Oh, not at all. Please take a seat," Gloria said, vigorously shaking her head. Gloria would indeed have liked nothing better, except maybe for Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, the other two central figures to last night's mystery, to join as well. Everybody was curious as to the truth of had happened, and now she would get to hear it right from the proverbial horse's mouth.

"So, what have you heard about me?" Hermione asked.

"She told us that you're really smart and that you can already do a bunch of magic even though your parents are muggles," Sakura said. She figured Gloria probably didn't want the other things she had been saying about Hermione to come out.

Hermione looked thoughtful for a second, then nodded her head and said, "I think I can live with that."

"So what happened last night? All I know was that we all went back to the dorms, and then we noticed you, Ron, and Harry were missing," Gloria said. Actually they had only noticed that Harry was missing, but no reason to say that. "Next thing we know, you show up looking all out of sorts, and then a few minutes later Harry and Ron show up and start talking about how they beat the troll. Is it true?"

"It's true," Hermione started. She had already told this story three times today, but the fact that this was the first time it seemed like people actually wanted to talk to her prevented her from getting too annoyed at the repetition. "I was in the bathroom during the feast, and next thing I know this troll comes barging in behind me. I hadn't heard anything about a troll so the first thing I did when I saw it was scream..."

Hermione went on to describe how Harry and Ron had, in the finest traditions of the Gryffindor house, bravely charged in despite any danger to themselves. They had first distracted the troll away from her. Harry then gallantly attacked the huge creature before Ron was finally was able to knock it out with magic. Gloria and Sakura listened with rapt attention. Even Lavender and Parvati, despite not officially being part of the conversation at first, had leaned in to better hear what had actually happened last night.

The three Gryffindor students were especially surprised to hear that Ron, of all people, had been the one to cast the spell to knock out the troll. Meanwhile Sakura, not knowing the nuances of talent and lack there-of among the Gryffindor students, just listened as Hermione continued to explain how she had covered for the two boys when the professors had shown up just after the nick of time.

"... and in the end Professor McGonagall docked me five points, but gave ten to Ron and Harry," Hermione finally concluded her story.

Sakura was a bit surprised about Hermione. Given Gloria's past descriptions of the girl, she had expected an annoying know-it-all. However, now that she had actually met the girl, Sakura wondered if Gloria might have been a bit too hard on her. Nothing Hermione had said suggested to Sakura anything of the sort. In fact, if they had been in the same house, they might have even become friends.

Gloria for her part was also reevaluating her opinion of Hermione. Covering for Harry and Ron was definitely not something she had expected from the goody two-shoes know-it-all. Hermione had also seemed far less annoying than she had just 24 hours earlier for some reason. Gloria resolved to try to spend more time around the girl to find out more about her; or at least stop avoiding her at every opportunity.

"Wow, that sounds like it was really scary," Sakura said. She wondered what she would have done in that situation if she didn't have access to any Sakura Cards. She decided she would need to pay more attention in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, just in case. Spending some time researching both magical creatures and Western spells as well wouldn't hurt either.

"Wow, that sounds so cool," Gloria said. She wondered why all the fun things seemed to happen to other people. She decided she should to redouble her exploration of the castle, and possibly check out the nearby forest as well if she could figure out some clever way to do so without being caught.

* * *

Last Updated: February 5, 2013


	8. 8: Sakura's Extraordinary Ordinary Day

Chapter 8: Sakura's Extraordinary Ordinary Day

Quidditch fever had swept through Hogwarts. Certain specific sections of Hogwarts.

The Slytherin house was excited, as they were every year. They traditionally had a very strong team, which they attributed to their superior stock and breeding. This year looked promising for them too. They had dominated the Quidditch house cup last year, and the older students were delighted at the chance to see their superiority demonstrated once again. Their excitement had spread like a contagion from the older students to the younger ones, and enough stories were told about daring plays and thrilling victories that even the first year Slytherin students were looking forward to seeing the elegant dance of brooms on the field of battle which pit student against student.

The Gryffindor house was also abuzz with excitement. They had been crushed by Slytherin last year so it might have been expected that they would be depressed about the coming year, especially with the graduation of their previous Seeker. However, if anything Gryffindor was even more excited than Slytherin, the chance for revenge whetting their appetite for the game more than any victory ever could. In addition, it was a closely guarded secret which somehow the whole school knew that they had found a new Seeker, and that this Seeker was an amazingly brilliant first year student. Not only that, it was actually The Boy Who Lived himself, the boy who was strong enough to beat You-Know-Who as a toddler. There were even rumors that he had single-handedly defeated the troll from Halloween with a single glare. Who knew what he would do on the pitch? Everybody felt sorry for Slytherin, Gryffindor's first opponent.

On the other hand, the Ravenclaw house was decidedly less interested in Quidditch than the other houses. They never had an exceptionally strong team. While they gave support to their players, nobody had any illusions about their actual chances of winning the competition. While they could win any given match, in the end they never seemed to quite have enough to finish out on top. A fair portion of the house still showed up on a game day, but the majority of Ravenclaw students were more inclined to find other ways to pass the time. Overall, they took Quidditch much more like a game than the life-and-death struggle that Slytherin and Gryffindor did.

While the Hufflepuff house might have shown more interest in Quidditch than the Ravenclaw house did, their interest was dwarfed by the excitement from both the Gryffindor house and the Slytherin house. Hufflepuff historically did poorly in the Quidditch house cup as well. Not as poorly as Ravenclaw, but they were definitely third place in a two horse race. As such, many of their students found other ways to pass the time as well, rather than attend the scheduled Quidditch matches.

Therefore it wasn't too surprising that among the group of close friends Sakura had made since coming to Hogwarts that only Gloria had chosen to attend the first match of the year, the Gryffindor-Slytherin game. The rest instead chose to pass the time studying. Sakura for her part spent the time talking to Kaho.

It was only the next day upon hearing how well the Gryffindor team did in trouncing the Slytherin team, and hearing how exciting, amazing, surprising, and shocking the new first year Gryffindor Seeker was, that Sakura had any tinge of regret about missing the game. Even so, the regret wasn't very strong. She couldn't even put on a cheerleader uniform and cheer for the athletes like she used to do in Japan, although that also meant that at least she wouldn't hit herself in the head with a baton again.

Despite this, the way all of the older Ravenclaw students who had seen the match kept enthusing about the game made her wonder if she was missing something. So when the next game came around, the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff game, it didn't take much from Gloria to convince Sakura to join her this time. She was especially easy to convince as it would be the last game played until February, and Sakura couldn't stand not knowing what she had missed for that long, not to mention that it would give her something else to talk to her friends about in Japan during the upcoming holiday in December.

That was how Sakura ended up in the stands of the Quidditch pitch on a crisp late November day. Keroberos had joined as well because he was also curious about this death-defying life-affirming exciting competition of skill and luck. He had taken his customary position in one of Sakura's robe pockets, looking for all the world like an inanimate plushie doll she carried around and only imagined was really a living friend.

Anthony and Lisa did not join, though, seemingly unaffected by the buzz about the game. They had instead chosen to spend the day having fun with friends and studying in the Ravenclaw Tower respectively. Sakura regretted this as, without anybody else to go to the game with, she had ended up as the only Ravenclaw student she could see in the Gryffindor section of the stands by following Gloria. She felt decidedly out of place surrounded by all the red and gold. At least Ravenclaw wasn't playing against Gryffindor so she didn't feel quite as awkward as she would have felt if she were in "enemy territory."

The Quidditch pitch was deceptively big. The layout looked small to Sakura as compared to a baseball field, but what it lost in area it made up for in volume. The three-dimensionality of the pitch made its size hard to properly judge.

After the ceremonial opening, Sakura quickly found herself lost as to what was going on.

It was obvious enough to Sakura that it required a great deal of skill for the students to dance around the air in their complex choreography whilst throwing balls between them. She was especially impressed considering they were doing this while precariously maintaining their balance on their brooms the whole time. She knew not only from her Flying classes at Hogwarts but also from the original incarnation of The Fly as well exactly how hard it was to do anything else while clinging to a thin cylinder high in the air away from certain death hundreds of feet below. She very much preferred the Sakura Card's incarnation of The Fly and the magical wings it gave her over that insecure dangling in the air.

However, despite the aerial dexterity and skill being demonstrated all around her, she didn't really understand how the game worked. The announcer didn't help any. His constant shouting about some Hufflepuff Snitching possession of a Quaffle from some Bludger, or some-such only served to confuse her.

Sakura's confused wonder was interrupted by Keroberos saying, "That's not very sporting. Those two are just sitting back while everybody else does all the hard work."

"Who is?" Sakura asked.

"Those two, up there," Keroberos said.

Sakura followed Keroberos's pointing up and saw two players, one from Ravenclaw and one from Hufflepuff, floating high above the fray. They would occasionally dart one way or another, or take a dive at each other, but for the most part they hovered without moving.

"Oh? Those two are the Seekers," Gloria said, as if that explained everything.

"Seekers? Who are the Seekers?" Sakura asked. The term meant nothing to her.

"I don't actually know who they are," Gloria said.

"The Hufflepuff one is Cedric Diggory and the Ravenclaw one is Adam Clarkson. He's not the usual Ravenclaw Seeker though. I think he's subbing for an injury. He's trying hard enough, but it looks like it's going to be a rough game for Ravenclaw," a boy behind the two girls said.

Sakura and Gloria turned around to see who had spoken. He was a burly boy with short brown hair.

"Y..you're Oliver Wood," Gloria stammered out.

"Why, so I am," Oliver said.

"Who is he?" Sakura asked.

"He's the captain OF THE GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH TEAM," Gloria said. She had to shout over the roar of the crowd at a daring save by the Hufflepuff Keeper.

"Since when could Herbert do that?" Oliver muttered to himself. Then, turning to the two girls, he said in a louder voice, "And not a half-bad Keeper too, if I do say so myself."

"It's nice to meet you, sir. I'm Gloria Tarnen. I want to try out for the Quidditch team next year," Gloria said.

"Well, glad to have you try out, especially if you bring your own cheering section, Miss..." Oliver's voice trailed off as he gestured to Sakura.

"Sakura Kinomoto," Sakura introduced herself to the implied question, bowing her head out of habit.

"Ah, Sakura. Glad to see you've decided to become one of our fans. We're a much better team than Ravenclaw, if you don't mind my saying. YOU PICKED A GREAT YEAR TO JOIN TOO. This is going to be the year Gryffindor finally takes the Quidditch cup," Oliver said. His shout had been forced by a sudden roar of the crowd as a shot of a Ravenclaw Beater almost managed to tag Herbert. Despite the miss, it had still managed to move the Keeper out of the way enough for a Ravenclaw Chaser to score with the Quaffle.

Oliver then turned back to Gloria and asked, "So your name was Gloria right? What position were you thinking of trying out for?"

"Oh, I was thinking of trying out for Seeker, but that was before Harry showed up. I couldn't believe it when everybody was saying he got a special exception to play, but he's absolutely brilliant. I can't believe he caught the Snitch so quickly, and on his very first game too," Gloria said.

"Caught it? More like ate it. It still makes me feel sick thinking about that thing in my mouth," a boy said, stepping out from where he had been blocked from view by Oliver.

The boy was small, almost scrawny, although he still managed to be taller than Sakura. He had messy black hair and stark green eyes, although they were hard to see through the large round glasses on his face. The most notable thing about the boy, though, was a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead, which the bangs of his hair somehow conspired to highlight rather than to cover. He vaguely reminded Sakura of Professor Quirrel in some strange way, although she couldn't figure out why.

"Are you still on about that? I don't care how do you do it. A catch is A CATCH! IF YOU EAT EVERY SNITCH THIS SEASON, you'll make me a happy man, Harry," Oliver said. The most recent cheer had been a result of Cedric diving for the ground, which in turn caused Adam to give chase. At the last minute Cedric pulled up allowing a clear shot at Adam by a Hufflepuff Beater. The Bludger missed, but still managed to wing the Ravenclaw's broom, which caused Adam to spin out for a few seconds.

"Harry? You're here too?" Gloria asked.

"Yeah. I was sort of dragged here by Oliver," Harry said.

"Dragged here? Come on Harry. Think of it as extra training in strategy. Those are the people we'll be facing soon. It's always good to get a little extra information before a match. It's too bad we don't have the normal Ravenclaw Seeker here today, but at least you can learn about their Beaters," Oliver said.

"Harry?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, as in Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived," Harry said, with a hint of a sigh in his voice.

"Come on!" Oliver's voice rang out, interrupting their discussion. "If you want to use a Hawkshead Attacking Formation you got to be much closer to each other than that! Did you even practice it before the game?" Oliver shouted at the Ravenclaw team, although it was doubtful any of them heard. Their clumsy maneuver made for an easy grab of the Quaffle by a speedy Hufflepuff Chaser.

"He's that boy Anthony and Lisa are always asking about. You remember, that boy who beat You-Know-Who?" Gloria explained, trying to tune out the shouting of Oliver right behind her.

"I see. Gloria's told me all about you," Sakura said. "It's a nice to finally meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Harry said. While he didn't dislike all the attention he had been subjected to since coming to Hogwarts, it was better than his life at the Dursley house hands down, always being the center of attention got to be a bit tiring at times. All of the constant stares and being subject to every rumor did get to be trying. Sometimes it felt like he couldn't even sneeze without it being the talk of the school the next day.

"So Gloria, you were telling me about which POSITION YOU WERE GOING TO TRY OUT FOR!" Oliver interrupted, in turn almost being interrupted by two quick scores by the Ravenclaw Chasers. Harry had long become old news to everybody in Gryffindor, but a potential new Quidditch player by contrast was something to get excited about in Oliver's opinion. "You aren't going to be trying out for Seeker then. I sure hope you aren't going to try and take my job."

"Oh, no way," Gloria said. "The Weasley twins are good Beaters too."

"You're also not really built for that either, no offense," Oliver said. While Gloria might be tall, without the stocky muscle behind it, her stature would just make her a larger target rather than an effective handler of the Bludgers.

"I guess that just leaves trying out to be a Chaser," Gloria said.

"Hmm," Oliver said, examining Gloria. "You're tall, so that gives some nice options for angles of attack. You might do well as a Chaser. I'll be sure to tell Katie, Angelina, and Alicia to be careful, although you're here and Alicia isn't so maybe you'll be able to take her spot. I always tell the team to come and get some intelligence on how our opponents play, like how Roger there seems to have developed a habit of flying in from the direction of the sun this year, but it seems like half of the team always skips out."

"Half? Is anybody else from the Gryffindor team around?" Sakura asked Oliver.

"Well, the Weasley twins are off doing who knows what. The only other people I saw were," Oliver said, but then cut himself off as the game distracted him. "Whoa, how did the Quaffle end up there? Ravenclaw's playing sneaky this year it seems."

Keroberos decided to interrupt, finally giving up on trying to figure out what was going on in the air above him. "Seeker, Beater, Quaffle? What are you talking about?"

Surprisingly, Harry and Oliver didn't react in surprise when the doll-like figure suddenly started talking, although they didn't answer him either. Gloria responded by asking, "Hmm? Those are the POSITIONS AND SOME OF THE BALLS THEY USE! DON'T you know anything about Quidditch?"

"No," Keroberos said.

"Not really," Sakura agreed. "I just heard that I had to see a game."

"Well, there's no shame in that. We were all new to the game at some point," Oliver said, having had to teach new team members the basics of Quidditch from scratch several times in the past.

"Oh. Basically there are seven people on each team. There's three Chasers on each side. They're trying to get that ball, the Quaffle, through the hoops. Each time they do they score ten points," Gloria said

"Okay," Sakura said hesitantly. She understood Gloria, even over the frequent roar of the crowd, but felt distracted by another familiar feeling she couldn't quite place.

"So, who are those people who keep hovering around the hoops then?" Keroberos asked.

"They're the Keepers," Oliver jumped in. "It's probably the second most important position on the field. Our job is to make sure the Chasers can't get the Quaffle through those hoops up there, but we also need to make sure we don't get knocked senseless by a flying Bludger."

"If the Keeper is the second most position, what's the most important position?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, that would be the Seeker. They're... well, why don't we let Harry explain it himself. He's the Seeker for Gryffindor after all," Gloria said.

"I'm still new so don't know that much, but as Oliver explained it to me, it's our job is to find and then grab the Golden Snitch. That's that small shiny fast ball flying down there," Harry said, pointing towards the ground on the right of the field.

"What? Well I'll be damned, that is the Snitch," Oliver said with surprise. "It looks like Cedric and Adam don't have a clue it's over there too. You really are a natural born Seeker, Harry. You've got great eyes and the best broom skills of a first year I've ever heard of."

Harry felt a bit self-conscious at Oliver's praise. It really was a lot easier to spot the Snitch as a spectator than on a broom when the pressure of the game, and the occasional Bludger, made the whole experience a blur of adrenaline pumping confusion.

Sakura looked and barely caught a glint of something before it disappeared from her sight. In contrast, the feeling Sakura had started feeling earlier was definitely growing. Even Keroberos had started to look around.

"Hey, Kero-chan, do you feel that?" Sakura asked in a low voice, conveniently muffled by a loud cheer from the crowd.

"Yeah. It feels almost like a," Keroberos said.

"Clow Card." Sakura finished his sentence.

Once the crowd's latest bout of cheering had calmed down, Harry continued, "Anyway, when one of the Seekers catches the Snitch the game ends and the Seeker who caught it scores 150 points for their team," before noticing Sakura was no longer paying attention to him.

"What do you think it is?" Sakura asked Keroberos. Meanwhile Harry was reflecting on the strange phenomena of actually being ignored for once at Hogwarts. While he didn't like it, it did make for a refreshing change of pace in a strange way. It almost reminded him of home. He got a sour look on his face at that thought.

Before the flashbacks of life at the Dursley house could weigh too heavily on his mind, Harry's attention was pulled back to the ongoing Quidditch game. While he had been talking, the Beaters on both sides had lined up in the air and had started a rally of hitting the two Bludgers back and forth at ever increasing speeds. It was inevitable that one of the Beaters would miss at some point with devastating consequences. The rally had seized the attention of practically everybody in the stadium, including Oliver and Gloria.

Gloria, so distracted, only tangentially noticed how Harry had finished his description of the Seeker position, and didn't notice at all the conversation between Sakura and Keroberos. Without turning away from the rally, almost on autopilot, she said, "Now that just leaves the Beaters and the Bludgers. Do you see those balls those four are hitting back and forth? They're called Bludgers. They fly around and try to knock the players off of their brooms. It's the job of the two Beaters on each team to make sure that doesn't happen."

"I don't know. You'd better check it out though. Do you have the cards with you?" Keroberos asked, paying no attention to Gloria's description

"No, I left them in the dorm," Sakura said. She had the Key around her neck like she always did, but had left the associated and much more bulky book and the Sakura Cards it contained back in her dorm room.

"Sakura! I told you to keep them with you. We'd better go and get them," Keroberos said.

"Okay. I'm going," Sakura said. She then turned back to Harry and said, "Sorry for ignoring you but something happened and I need to go check on it. Nice to meet you Harry. Oliver."

"What? No, no, that's alright. I understand," Harry said sympathetically. He also had several recent things which he couldn't talk about but needed to deal with at times; some of those things had actually happened on this very Quidditch pitch, appropriately enough. Harry finished by saying, "Nice to meet you."

"Hmm? Oh, you're leaving. Nice to meet you too," Oliver said, then turned his attention back to the escalating rally.

"Sorry, but I need to go Gloria. I'll find you later, okay?" Sakura said to Gloria, then made her way out of the stands.

Gloria didn't notice the parting words between Sakura and the two Quidditch players, or in fact much of anything beyond the action on the Quidditch pitch and what she was saying. She was entranced by the dangerous duel the Beaters in the air were performing between them.

"So that's Quidditch, or at least the basics. THERE'S A LOT MORE STRATEGY THAN THAT, THOUGH! Sometimes games can even last for days. So what do you think of it?" Gloria asked.

The rally between the Beaters finally came to an end with a Ravenclaw Beater receiving the worse of it. He was on the ground and everybody was sure he'd be spending some time under the care of Madam Pomfrey once this game was over.

Gloria waited for Sakura's reply, but when it failed to manifest she tried again. "So, what do you think of Quidditch then?"

No reply came again, which caused Gloria to look around. Behind her she still saw Harry and Oliver, but Sakura was nowhere in sight. She asked out loud, "What? Where did she go?"

"If you are looking for... umm... your friend, she said she had to go check on something and just disappeared a second ago," Harry told Gloria. He realized to his chagrin he had never actually gotten the name of the short Ravenclaw girl.

* * *

It took Sakura several minutes to push her way through the crowd to get out of the Quidditch arena. From there it took her several more minutes to jog back to the castle. It then took even more minutes to get to Ravenclaw Tower, with the moving staircases being even more trying of Sakura's patience than usual. All the while Keroberos kept urging her to go faster. Luckily the knocker's riddle was an easy one so Sakura was able to get in without a hitch.

Despite her exertion, the cool late autumn air had prevented her from getting too sweaty. The only indication of her rush back to the dorms when she walked in to the Ravenclaw common area was her heavy breathing. It didn't matter very much, though, as nobody was in sight. Sakura made her way to her dorm room, pushed open the door, and then gave a gasp of surprise.

Instead of its normal neat geometric layout, the room was a complete mess. Two of the dressers had been knocked over, their contents spilled all over the floor. A mattress had also been knocked completely clear of its frame and was lying in the center of the room. Two other mattresses were lying half off their frames, draped across the footboard of their respective beds. In addition, several of the chests had been knocked about, and one of them had even been turned around and was on its side, its lid cracked open and its content strewn in a semicircle in the front of it. A quick glance confirmed to Sakura that it was her chest which had been broken. Alphred, Linda's cat familiar, had taken advantage of the disarray and was nestled on a mishmash of clothes piled in the center of the room.

Alphred was the only living thing in the room, though. Both Deborah's and Lisa's owls were missing, presumably out running some delivery for their respective mistresses. More surprisingly was the absence of Lisa herself, who had said she was going to be studying in Ravenclaw Tower during the Quidditch game. She hadn't been in the common room, and with the mess of their dorm room, Sakura was suddenly worried about what might have happened to her friend.

Throughout the room something tugged at Sakura. The echos of a Clow Card gone rampant reverberated around her, hauntingly familiar but somehow different this time. There was also a twinge of something unidentifiable which she didn't remember from when she had collected the cards back in Japan.

A sudden gasp from behind her caused Sakura to spin around. Behind her stood Lisa, hands covering her mouth which was gaping at the wanton destruction. She asked, "What did you do in here?"

"What did we do? We didn't have anything to do with this. We just got here. What about you? Didn't you say you were going to be studying in here? What did you do in here?" Keroberos retorted.

"Oh no! Kero-chan, look! The cards!" Sakura interrupted.

The book which normally held all of the Sakura Cards was lying on the floor near Sakura's broken chest and the Sakura Cards themselves were scattered all around it. She quickly walked into room, picked the book up, and gathered the cards as fast as she could. Keroberos left his questioning of Lisa to help Sakura look around for the scattered cards.

"Kero-chan!" Sakura exclaimed. "One of the cards is missing!"

"What?" Keroberos asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. The Jump isn't here," Sakura said, holding up the book.

"Jump?" Lisa asked.

"Calm down, Sakura. You should be able to feel it if you concentrate," Keroberos said, ignoring Lisa.

"I tried. I don't sense it anywhere near here," Sakura said, also ignoring Lisa.

"What is this jump?" Lisa asked again.

"Maybe that's what we felt before. I feel that thing in here too. Try to trace where it went," Keroberos said.

"Good idea," Sakura said. She closed her eyes to concentrate.

"Are either of you going to tell me what is going on?" Lisa asked.

Sakura continued to ignore Lisa as she grasped for the tentative thread of power that was still lingering in the area. It was a complete jumble of a knot as it twisted around the room, and it took her several moments before she detected where the trace of it exited.

"It went that way!" Sakura shouted as she pointed at an open window.

"Quick, let's follow it before it gets away!" Keroberos exclaimed, flying towards the window.

"Wait, that's the window!" Sakura shouted after him.

"Before what gets away?" Lisa asked.

"It doesn't matter! Let's go!" Keroberos shouted back at Sakura.

Sakura protested, "But what about..."

"There's no time! The Jump's getting away!" Keroberos insisted, interrupting her. He was halfway out of the window already.

"Wait for me!" Sakura shouted. Running towards the window and pulling the Key from around her neck, she chanted in Japanese as fast as she could, "Key which hides the powers of the stars, reveal your true form before me. I, Sakura, command you under our contract. Release!"

The small Key quickly grew to its full size as she ran. Holding the Key in one hand, she climbed up onto the windowsill.

"Wait! What are you doing? We are over 50 feet up!" Lisa shouted.

"Let's go!" Keroberos shouted, and then left the room via the window.

"Wait up!" Sakura shouted. She grabbed the frame with one hand and leaped out, following Keroberos.

Lisa ran to the window as she heard a scream from outside. Looking down, she fully expected to see the broken body of Sakura lying on the courtyard below. She wanted to find the body before getting help. Hopefully Sakura wouldn't be too far gone and they would be able to heal her, although Lisa didn't hold too much hope for that.

Lisa couldn't see anything below her. Spreading her vision in a wider area of the courtyard, Lisa frantically looked around the ground, trying to spot the body. Somehow she wasn't able to locate the dark robe of her friend anywhere below.

A distant "Wahoo!" caught Lisa's ear, and she looked up to see two figures flying towards the forest. They were hard to see at the distance they were at, though. A blink later, she lost sight of them both, making her wonder if she had just imagined them.

* * *

The flying Sakura and Keroberos made a beeline in the direction they had sensed The Jump had gone. This brought them dangerously close to the Quidditch pitch. Keroberos didn't want to draw any attention to himself, and Sakura certainly didn't want to be seen flying like this, so both lowered themselves to just above ground level and flew as fast as they could. Luckily, the match seemed to have caught the attention of everybody in the area and they didn't see anybody else around.

The pair quickly passed the pitch as a particularly exciting play was made, judging by the loud cheer which erupted, and they rapidly approached the forest.

"Wait, that's the forest. We're not allowed in there," Sakura said. Despite her words, she didn't slow down a whit.

"There's no choice. That's the way The Jump went," Keroberos said. The feeling both Sakura and Keroberos had first felt at the Quidditch match was only getting stronger as they flew, making it easier to track.

"But I'll get in trouble," Sakura said.

"Not if you don't get caught, and worse things will happen if anybody finds us like this or finds The Jump. Come on. Hurry up," Keroberos said as the pair plunged into the forest.

The cooling weather and shorter days had caused most of the leaves to fall off the trees, so the forest wasn't dark as such. However, despite this, the area around Sakura had somehow taken on the murky look of the entrance to a cave, even though there was barely a forest canopy above her. This ambiance was punctuated with several shafts of bright November sunlight piercing through the brown wood all around her.

The sounds of nature surrounded Sakura, or at least surrounded her as much as anybody flying at a too dangerous speed could be said to be surrounded. She occasionally heard a loud rustle or the crack of wood over the roar of air in her ears, but she was too concentrated on frantically weaving and dodging tree trunks and branches in a desperate attempt to keep up with Keroberos to pay it any mind. Being only a fraction of the size of Sakura, Keroberos had a much easier time maneuvering through the cramped spaces of the woods than she did.

"Slow down, Kero-chan! It's too dangerous," Sakura protested.

It was no good, though. Whether it was because Keroberos hadn't heard her or it was because he was so caught up in the chase he didn't listen, Keroberos kept plowing forward, and Sakura lost sight of the guardian beast in the dense forest.

The only affect this had on Sakura was to let her travel at a slightly slower and much safer speed. She could track The Jump on her own just as easily as she could follow Keroberos, and without the yellow guardian charging forward in front of her, she felt able to follow at a much more reasonable pace. She flew around the trees with a grace unknown to those bound by gravity and made her way towards the wayward card and the wayward guardian beast. Sakura was sure Keroberos was tracking The Jump just as she was, and thus she was sure she would catch up to him eventually.

In fact, Sakura caught up to Keroberos much earlier than catching up to The Jump. About a minute after losing track of the flying plushie, Sakura found him in a particularly wide sunlit clearing, where the yellow guardian beast was conversing with a half-man half-horse creature.

"We're getting close, Sakura. Firland here says he saw something jump by a few minutes ago that way," Keroberos said pointing to the side.

"Yes, but be careful. A Whomping Willow tree is that way, and they do not take kindly to being disturbed," the centaur added.

"Okay. Thanks for the warning, Mr. Firland," Sakura said. "Let's go after it, Kero-chan."

Sakura flew off in the direction the centaur pointed, which matched the direction her feelings were directing her. Keroberos stayed behind a few moments longer to exchange a few words with the centaur and then quickly caught up to her.

After another minute of flying, Sakura came across what must have been the Whomping Willow tree. It looked like a giant willow tree which was flailing around and hitting the ground, creating a great whomp with each strike. She slowed down and made to fly around the thrashing tree when she noticed some movement underneath it.

Sakura squinted her eyes to peer into the darkness under the tree. It was hard to make out from all of the leaves along on the ground, but Sakura did see a shadow bouncing around, barely in front of each whomp of the tree's branches. While she couldn't make out the shape of the object, its movements and especially the feeling it gave were unmistakable.

"That looks like..." Sakura started saying.

"The Jump!" Keroberos finished for her.

"What should we do?" Sakura asked.

"Whatever we do, we'd better do it fast, before The Jump gets clobbered. Maybe The Firey?" Keroberos suggested.

"But The Jump is in there. It'll get hurt too," Sakura disagreed. "It might even start a fire and destroy everything in the forest."

"Then what do you suggest?" Keroberos asked.

Sakura thought quickly. The proper element to combat wood was fire, as Keroberos had suggested, but that wasn't an option. She could only think of one thing.

"I got it!" Sakura shouted.

Sakura reached into the book which held all of the Sakura cards and willed the selected card to her hand. She pulled it out, threw it into the air, and chanted, "Wood, block that tree and protect The Jump from its attacks. Wood!"

Sakura forced the rod down with as much force as she could, intercepting the card in midair and holding it still. This was magic as Sakura was used to. None of those ephemerally slippery glimpses of power from wand made which constantly eluded her control, this was easy to understand and easier to use raw magical energy: generated by her, directed through the Key, and given form by the Sakura Card.

The elegant figure of The Wood emerged from the card as Sakura channeled her power into it. As if beckoned by this image, a vast network of roots and branches erupted from the ground. With a speed more reminiscent of thrown javelins than growing branches, they launched themselves at the flailing tree.

The Whomping Willow tree reacted to the new intruder as it would any other and struck out at the branches. Loud thunks sounded out where they struck, but there was no lasting effect to either side of the conflict. As The Wood continued to expand, these thunks came more frequently and became louder, until the groundswell of branches had completely engulfed the targeted tree. The wooden thuds were then replaced with loud creaks and groans, reminiscent to Sakura of the first day she had found The Wood when it had almost torn her house apart.

While the Whomping Willow tree shuddered and The Wood strained to hold it back, The Jump seized upon the chance that it had been given and leaped out of the cover and towards the deeper forest.

"Quick! It's getting away!" Keroberos yelled.

Sakura dropped to the ground and released The Fly. She could probably handle three or more cards now, but there was no reason to risk overexerting herself. The Wood was currently engaged in holding back the Whomping Willow tree so Sakura couldn't use it to capture the Jump the same way she had last time. With no time to think, Sakura reacted purely on instinct and grabbed the most dependable card from her collection, her first card and the one she had relied on more than any other in capturing cards. She took the Sakura Card and threw it high into the air.

"Winds, form the chains that bind. Windy!" Sakura shouted.

Striking down with the Key again, precisely catching the levitating card in midair, she again channeled her power through the Key. Rather than The Wood's elegant figure, the graceful figure of The Windy emerged from the card.

The Windy lashed out with chains of wind strong enough to knock over a building and streaked after The Jump. The Jump tried to evade, but was constrained by the forest of trees surrounding it in a way that the air pursuing it was not. After two bounces which had successfully dodged the persistent winds, it accidentally jumped head first into a tree branch where it was stunned for a moment. This moment was all The Windy needed as it surrounded and bound the scared creature holding it fast.

"What do we do now?" Sakura asked, running towards the now disabled renegade Sakura Card.

"I don't know. It's too dangerous to get near and The Jump is too scared to listen to you. Why don't you try to reseal it?" Keroberos suggested.

Sakura didn't like that idea. The cards weren't just tools to her; they were her friends, even if they did act a bit mischievously at times. She hated to have to seal them against their will, but Keroberos was right. There was nothing else to be done.

Bringing the Key at the ready, Sakura raised it high into the air. Then, swinging it down in the manner she had done countless times before, she commanded the card, "Return to the form you were meant to be in. In the name of your mistress, Sakura, I command you. Jump!"

The Jump stopped moving and slowly dematerialized, peeling away in streaks of power. They reformed below the Key in the compact form of a card. Sakura could feel something was wrong, though. As The Jump card formed, a strong trace of something followed it. As the power coalesced in the card, this trace gathered in her wand until its presence was unmistakable. It charged her rod, making it practically hum as if it were filled with pure static. It made her feel sick.

"Kero-chan. Something's wrong," Sakura said.

"What's that?" Keroberos asked, pointing at the Key.

The Key in Sakura's hands had taken an unhealthy hue and glowed with a faint light, barely visible in the dim forest shadows.

"Hoe!" Sakura exclaimed as The Jump finished forming. She swung her rod back and forth several times, making as if to fling whatever had possessed the Key loose like the last few drops of water from an almost empty bottle.

Partway through being waved up and down, the Key released whatever energy it had gathered with a giant bang. Reacting to the sound, several nearby birds took to the air and flew away. Sakura was knocked backwards off her feet, landing dangerously close to the Whomping Willow tree. Luckily, The Wood still had it barely under control, so Sakura didn't need to find out exactly how close she had come to a quick and painful end.

"What was that?" Keroberos asked.

"I don't know," Sakura said as she climbed to her feet.

"Maybe you ought to ask Eriol or something," Keroberos said.

"Good idea," Sakura said.

She reached over and took The Jump card, which was still floating in midair where it had reformed. She checked it over, looking for any indication of something being wrong with the card. Her quick inspection didn't show anything amiss. The feeling of strangeness she had felt was no longer detectable in the card either.

Sakura stepped well clear of the Whomping Willow tree and then recalled The Wood. The Whomping Willow tree, now free, swung around a few times and pounded its branches into the already flattened ground around it. With no target in its range, though, the tree slowly calmed down, and after several seconds it eventually regained the look of an ordinary willow tree.

"Come on, Kero-chan. Let's go," Sakura said. She then looked around for a second and then added, "Which way are we supposed to go?"

* * *

Sakura and Keroberos eventually made it out of the forest, although Keroberos had needed to resort to flying above the trees to locate the towers of Hogwarts Castle before the pair were able to orient themselves. When he had located them, he discovered that they hadn't traveled nearly as far from the castle as they had thought. The path they had taken into the forest had followed the same erratic path The Jump had taken, and it was apparently far less straight than it had seemed when they had been chasing it in hot pursuit. Despite the fact the path out of the forest was shorter than the path they had taken towards the Whomping Willow tree, though, it still took noticeably longer to travel, seeing how they weren't flying in a reckless breakneck speed.

At the slower speed they traveled, the sounds of the forest seemed to take on a much more ominous tenor. The rustling to the left became an enormous serpent ready to wrap around Sakura and bite her, causing her to die a painful death from poison. The snap of a twig behind became a wolf stalking her, ready to pounce and swallow her whole. Sakura told herself it was just her imagination, but even so, she couldn't help but pick up the pace until she was walking at a reasonably fast hiking speed.

As they reached the edge of the forest, Sakura slowed down again. She carefully looked around to make sure nobody was nearby. Nobody was. Taking the opportunity to leave the forest unobserved, Sakura and Keroberos emerged into the daylight, blinking rapidly at the bright sun above.

"Come on, Kero-chan. Let's hurry," Sakura said. The further they got away from the forest, the safer she would feel, both from the imagined woodland terrors as well as from the dangers of being caught breaking the prohibition on entering the forest in the first place.

"Okay," Keroberos said. He flew over to Sakura and took his customary position in her pocket as the pair made their way back to Hogwarts Castle.

Their path back brought them near the Quidditch pitch. Coincidentally, the game had just finished, so Sakura was able to easily merge in with the hundreds of students and staff who were streaming out of the arena.

The pair might have made their way back to the castle without incident except for another coincidence which reared its head. Without warning, Gloria suddenly appeared next to Sakura. Gloria took a look to her side, and then took a double-take when she recognized Sakura.

"Oh, Sakura, what happened?" Gloria asked. "When I turned around, you were gone. Where were you?"

Thinking fast, Sakura said, "Water closet."

"Water closet?" Gloria asked? "You mean the loo?"

Sakura nodded slowly.

"Then why were you gone so long?" Gloria asked.

"I got lost and couldn't find you again?" Sakura tentatively suggested.

Gloria looked at Sakura incredulously. This prompted Sakura to try and distract Gloria by asking, "What happened to Harry and Oliver?"

"They were still talking about the game and planning for their next practice session when I left. I can't say I blame them. Crazy ending, that game. Cedric must have dived at least a hundred feet to grab that Snitch. Harry and Oliver must be worried," Gloria said.

"Yes. Incredible," Sakura agreed, hoping Gloria wouldn't realize she hadn't seen it.

"Still, a shame for Ravenclaw. They played well, just bad luck, that Bludger and all. I'm sure they'll do better next time," Gloria empathized.

"Yes. Bad luck," Sakura said.

Gloria kept talking about the Quidditch match for the entire trip back to the castle. Sakura kept agreeing at what she thought were appropriate times, not knowing anything about how the game went. The strategy seemed to have succeeded, as Gloria didn't press for any details about where Sakura had been during the game.

Once inside the castle, the pair split up to go to their respective towers. The peace was not to last, though.

Sakura answered the question the knocker on the door to Ravenclaw Tower posed about the floo network, which she luckily happened to remember from her conversations with Kaho. After the door swung open she walked in and headed to her dorm room. In there, she found a large crowd of Ravenclaw students. In addition to Lisa, Linda and Deborah had returned as well and were cleaning up their sections. Furthermore, Penelope and two other upperclassman girls Sakura didn't recognize were also in the room, helping to straighten up the larger pieces of furniture.

Lisa looked up, saw Sakura, and then rushed over to her. She asked, "What happened to you? I thought you were dead!"

"Is it true that you jumped out the window?" Penelope asked.

"I guess I did, but I'm okay, see?" Sakura said nervously. She held her arms out and gave a quick turn to demonstrate how okay she was.

"What happened? How did you survive?" Lisa asked. She then reached over and pulled a twig out from Sakura's hair. "Did you fall into a tree or something?"

"Something like that," Sakura said. "Lucky."

"What could have made you to do such a thing?" Lisa asked. "First something destroys our room, and next thing I know you start shouting about some jump and then jump out of the window. It is like this place is haunted and you were possessed or something."

"Don't be silly," Penelope said. "Ghosts can't do anything like that. Even if there was one that could, Professor Dumbledore would get rid of it faster than you can say Merlin's Beard if it ever tried to; although I will admit that sometimes Peeves makes me want to jump out of a window just to be rid of him."

While Penelope was talking, Keroberos and Lisa were exchanging suspicious glares towards each other.

"So, do you care to explain why you jumped out of the window?" Penelope asked.

"It's complicated," Sakura said.

"How illuminating. Eh, all's well that ends well," Penelope said, letting her off the hook. "But you're lucky a professor didn't see you trying to pull a stunt like that. Just don't try something like that again or I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey to have you examined myself."

"Okay," Sakura said.

"Alright then. Let's get everything cleaned up in here then before we miss supper," Penelope said, turning back to a misaligned dresser. Sakura went to her area to start cleaning up her scattered clothing, while Lisa helped another of the girls move one of the disheveled chests.

While they were cleaning up, Sakura resolved to carry all of the Sakura Cards with her wherever she went from now on, no matter how inconvenient it was. She didn't know exactly what had happened, but it was too dangerous to leave them alone if The Jump had gone berserk like that. The Jump was bad enough, but if it something like The Earthy or The Firey had gone out of control it could have been a full blown disaster. Her days of catching rampaging Clow Cards, or Sakura Cards as the case may be now, were long over, and she had no interest in starting them up again.

It wasn't until much later that anybody remembered there weren't any trees outside of their dorm room windows.

* * *

Last Updated: October 29, 2012


	9. 9: Sakura and the Happy Home Holiday

Chapter 9: Sakura and the Happy Home Holiday

Christmas had come to Hogwarts early. At least its carefree absent state of mind had if not the actual date itself. Even with over three weeks to go before the official day, nobody was in the mood to do any studying and no real classwork got done. Instead people were talking about how much they were looking forward to seeing their family again, how much were looking forward to the break, and how very much they were looking forward to not having to sit through another one of Professor Binns's lectures for a while.

This festive mood was bolstered by the decorations which had started springing up all over the castle. Some decorations were the official school-sanctioned ones, but many more were personal effects laid out by the students themselves. They placed them not only in the dorms, but everywhere they thought they could get away with it, much to the annoyance of Argus Filch. Nature itself seemed to conspire to join in the festivities as well, as for the last few days a blanket of snow covered the castle and its surrounding grounds, lending an extra feeling of enchantment to everything.

The excitement among the children must have been contagious because even the professors seemed more lax in their enforcement of the rules and more willing to let minor infractions slide. It was unknown if this contagion had spread to Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall, though. None of the students were brave enough to try anything in front of either of them to find out if they had also caught the Christmas spirit. Nobody thought they had.

In truth, all of the professors were looking forward to the holiday just as much as the students were, even if they would never admit it in front of any of the children. Educating the upcoming generation of promising young wizards and witches was rewarding, but very frustrating and extremely tiring at times, especially with people like the Weasley twins around. The professors deserved, no needed, a break as much as any of the students.

Sakura for her part was looking forward to finally visiting home after such a long time away. She wasn't eager to spend another half day trapped in a long plane trip, but she missed her father, Tomoyo, and Yukito terribly. She even missed her brother, although she would never admit it.

The plan was simple enough. She would go with Kaho back to Reed Manor, and from there catch the next flight to Tokyo. Sonomi had insisted Sakura return to Japan as quickly as possible, and Sakura didn't want to protest, seeing how Sonomi had arranged and paid for everything.

In actuality, Sakura wanted to get home as fast as possible as well, even if she did feel a little bad about not being able to spend more time with Eriol. It had been so long since she'd seen her family that she was sure he would understand, though. She consoled herself that she had even had a chance to talk to Eriol a couple of times via the floo network over the past few months, although not since the incident with The Jump.

The pre-holiday celebrations were so built up that it was almost anti-climactic when the last day of classes finally arrived. Almost anti-climactic. The cheering, yelling, shouting, and running down the halls made sure that the vaunted day would not be overshadowed.

When the day had finally come, Sakura took one last look around her Ravenclaw dorm room before leaving, just to make sure she had everything she needed. She checked for what must have been the hundredth time that all 52 Sakura Cards were safely tucked away in her book and were ready for the trip back to Japan. It would be an absolute disaster if another Sakura Card went rampant while she wasn't around.

As she walked out of the tower, carrying only a backpack worth of items, Sakura reminded herself again to ask Eriol what he thought of The Jump's escapades in November when she had a chance to. She had mentioned the incident to Kaho earlier, but Kaho hadn't been able to provide very much insight.

The walk through the castle just drove home to Sakura how different Hogwarts felt now as compared to just the day before. She was far from the last person left in the castle, but the entire atmosphere of the school felt emptier and darker than she had grown accustomed to. With most of the student body missing, the castle felt abandoned. Even the occasional conversation she heard felt subdued and much more quiet than normal. The cheerful holiday decorations just accentuated this difference, making the castle take on an almost eerie quality.

Sakura made her way to Kaho's office. She had originally thought she would be taking the Hogwarts Express back to Reed Manor, presumably with Eriol picking her and Kaho up at the station. Kaho had corrected her misunderstanding, though, explaining they would be traveling via the floo network instead.

The trip to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express was as much tradition as anything, not to mention a good way to meet new students. For the volume of children with all of their baggage, it was the most economical way to travel as well. For the holiday trip, though, Kaho and Eriol had decided that taking the floo network would be much faster and easier, even if it was more expensive. It was an option not available to most students, but as Kaho was a professor, she, and thus Sakura, had access to this alternative means of transportation. Lisa, Anthony, and Gloria had expressed their envy, being relegated to the long trip via the Hogwarts Express themselves.

When Sakura eventually reached Kaho, she found her standing beside a brightly lit fireplace. It cast a warm glow throughout the room which fought off the bitter cold of December, and the homely feeling it radiated was in stark contrast to the almost abandoned building Sakura had just traveled through.

"Are you ready to go?" Kaho asked. She carried even less than Sakura did, having only a half-full purse with her.

"Yes. What should I do?" Sakura asked. She knew about the floo network, but had never actually traveled through it before.

"Well first, come over here," Kaho beckoned.

"Okay," Sakura said, and walked over to Kaho.

"Now, don't worry. Traveling through the floo network is very similar to talking or sending things through it. Just take a little of this powder here," Kaho said, pointing at a bag hanging to the side of the fireplace, "and throw it into the fire. When the fire turns green, walk into it and clearly say 'Reed Manor.'"

Kaho and Eriol had never bothered trying to get the manor re-registered in the floo network. It felt wrong for Kaho to claim the inheritance from Eriol, and it would be too hard to explain to the appropriate authorities why Eriol was the master of the house and convince them that he was capable of handling the estate despite the fact he already was handling the estate.

"Hoe? Into the fire?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. Don't worry, it won't hurt you," Kaho reassured her.

"Okay," Sakura said. She wasn't convinced, but trusted Kaho.

She grabbed a handful of powder and threw it into the fireplace. The fire flared up and turned a vivid green. Sakura could feel the magic in the air. She closed her eyes, said "Reed Manor" in as clear a voice as she could, and walked into the imposing unnatural flame.

As Sakura's foot touched the floor in the fireplace, it felt like the ground fell out from under her. She was falling, around and around in a giant spiral. It almost made Sakura sick, although she was so caught up in the phenomena that she didn't have time to really feel it. All she could hear was the roar of her blood rushing around her ears. She didn't dare open her eyes. As she fell, she felt something jar hard against one of her arms, and she automatically repositioned them closer to her body in response.

After an eternally long moment, Sakura abruptly felt the stable hard surface of a floor beneath her, and her sensations of spinning in circles came to a sudden end. With the termination of her spiraling, all of the sickness she felt while traveling in the floo network vanished as well.

"Welcome back, Sakura," Eriol said, prompting her to open her eyes. She was standing in front of a fireplace in the grand entrance of Reed Manor.

"Oh. Eriol," Sakura said, half surprised at her new location.

"Heya," Keroberos added, flying out of Sakura's pocket.

"Welcome back," Eriol repeated. "You might want to move just a bit so you don't get in Kaho's way."

"Hoe?" Sakura asked, but moved forward a few feet regardless.

"See? That wasn't too bad, was it?" Kaho's voice came from behind Sakura.

Sakura turned around to see Kaho, looking none the worse from the trip.

"Welcome back," Eriol said.

"I'm back," Kaho said.

"I've prepared some snacks in the dining room to welcome back our little scholar," Eriol said leading the pair in the appropriate direction. He then added almost as an afterthought, "And a present too."

"A present?" Sakura asked, perking up.

"A present?" Kaho asked, a touch of concern barely detectable in her voice.

"Yes, but it can wait until after you eat," Eriol said, deftly hiding the emotions in his voice.

"Aww, I want to see the present first," Sakura said.

"Hmm, okay. Let's go to the dining room first, and then I'll go get it while you get something to eat," Eriol said.

Ruby was already sitting in the dining room when the three humans arrived. In front of her was a plate of food which she was staring at longingly but hadn't actually started eating from. Spinel, in her fake form was also there, laying on the table and casting disparaging looks at the anxious Ruby.

When Sakura came into the room, Ruby jumped to her feet and ran over to give Sakura an enormous hug. "Sakura! Welcome back!"

Sakura accepted the hug with good grace and said, "Hello Ruby."

"You better be careful or you'll suffocate the poor girl," Spinel said.

"Oh! Sorry!" Ruby exclaimed, releasing Sakura.

"Don't worry about it," Sakura said.

"I'm sure you're hungry. Take a seat and get something to eat, and I'll go get the present," Eriol said, and then left the room.

"Yay! Food!" Keroberos shouted, flying over to take a seat on the table next to Spinel. Spinel, in turn, gave an annoyed look and turned away from Keroberos.

Sakura had just finished filling her plate when Eriol returned, carrying a gorgeous wooden box. He pulled the box open, displaying the two beautifully intricate model houses inside. It was only after Sakura stared at them for a few seconds that she realized what they were models of.

"Isn't that my house? And here too?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, and that's not all. I was thinking that the plane trips to and from Japan are far too tedious and expensive, so I made these. They're called portkeys. If you hold the model of your house and say 'to Japan bound' it will teleport you to your house. Then if you hold the model of this manor and say 'to England bound' it will bring you back here," Eriol said.

"Wow," Sakura said. It did sound much more convenient than the long plane rides she currently had to go through to travel between the countries.

"Did you register them with the Ministry of Magic?" Kaho asked, the barest hint of a frown on her face.

Eriol directed a subtle smile to Kaho and said, "They won't be able to tell I made them, and it it's not like it will hurt them or anything."

"You know we can't do that," Kaho said. She walked over and picked up the box. "I'm sorry Sakura, but you won't be able to use these just yet. I'll need to register them with the Ministry of Magic first, and probably the Japanese government too. I'll talk to the embassy the next time I'm there."

Sakura gave a pout. The portkeys sounded really interesting and convenient, and she wanted to try them out at least once.

Eriol interrupted her pouting by asking, "So how is life at Hogwarts, Sakura? Has anything interesting happened since we last spoke?"

"That's right, something really big happened," Sakura said. Remembering The Jump's antics drove all thoughts of the portkeys from her head.

"What happened?" Eriol asked.

"One of the cards got away and I had to chase it and recapture it," Sakura said.

"What?" Eriol exclaimed. "That shouldn't be possible with you as the mistress of the cards. What happened?"

"I don't know," Sakura honestly admitted. "I went to a Quidditch game with Gloria, and the next thing I knew, Kero-chan and I were feeling a card running around, like before."

Sakura looked to Keroberos, who nodded in agreement before grabbing another takoyaki on a toothpick and stuffing it into his mouth. He was content to let Sakura explain things while he filled his stomach.

"So what happened? Did the card just fly out of the book? Did you drop it? Did the book burst open? What?" Eriol asked.

"I don't know," Sakura said.

"How could you not know? Didn't you have the book with you at the time?" Eriol asked

"No. I left it in the dorms when I went to the Quidditch match," Sakura admitted, looking down at the table.

"Oh, Sakura," Eriol said slowly. "The cards are dangerous, not just to use but for what they can be used for. There's a lot of people who would do a lot of terrible things with them. Being their mistress is a big responsibility. You need to be careful."

"I know," Sakura said. "I've kept it with me ever since then. I promise."

Eriol looked at Keroberos, who nodded to him in confirmation.

"Well everything is okay now so I guess it's alright. Now why don't you tell me what you do know and we'll try to figure out what happened," Eriol said.

"Okay. Well, after Kero-chan and I noticed that feeling, we went back to get the book at the castle, but when we got to my room it was all messed up. It looked like somebody went around and threw everything everywhere. The book was open too, with all of the cards scattered about. I got them all together, but then we noticed The Jump was missing," Sakura explained.

"The Jump? It always was one of the more rambunctious cards," Eriol said.

"Yes. I figured out which way it went and Kero-chan and I flew after it," Sakura said.

"You flew?" Eriol asked.

"We were in a big hurry and it was getting away," Sakura said. "Anyway, we followed it into the forest and eventually found it being attacked by this tree."

Sakura still felt bad about having gone into the forest. Kaho had explained in detail why the forest was off-limits after Sakura had returned, mentioning some of the exceedingly dangerous things it hid which Sakura hadn't been aware of and luckily hadn't encountered.

"It was probably a Whomping Willow tree, or maybe an Angry Ash tree," Kaho added. Eriol gave a nod.

"Right. Well, I summoned The Wood to hold the tree back, but then The Jump tried to get away again so I had to summon The Windy to bind it and then re-sealed it," Sakura said. Her face saddened a bit at this memory.

"It was very strange when I resealed it, though. Something strange came out and went into the Key, and then the Key started glowing and made me feel bad. I tried shaking the wand and it gave a loud bang. After that the card looked normal so I put it back in the book and we left the forest," Sakura finished.

"Strange. Have you tried using The Jump since then?" Eriol asked.

"No," Sakura said.

"Do you have the cards with you?" Eriol asked.

"Here," Sakura said, as she pulled the book out from where she kept it.

"Mind if I take a look at them?" Eriol asked.

"Okay," Sakura said, and handed the book with all the cards over to him.

Eriol opened the book and quickly flipped through the cards until he found The Jump. He pulled it out and looked carefully at it. He gave it a tap or two, and tried channeling a bit of power through it to see how it would react.

"Well, whatever happened to it, it looks fine now. You did a good job fixing the card," Eriol said, causing Sakura to blush slightly.

"You said you didn't have the cards with you when this all started. Where was it?" Eriol asked.

"I kept it somewhere safe," Sakura insisted. "I kept it locked up in my chest in the dorm."

"Then what happened? How did it get out?" Eriol asked.

"I don't know. When I came back the chest was all broken open, and there was a huge hole in it," Sakura said. "I tried asking Lisa, but she said she didn't know what happened either, and she was in the dorm the whole time."

"So Lisa was there the whole time and she didn't notice anything?" Eriol asked.

"Yes. That's what she said," Sakura said.

Eriol thought for a second, and then said, "That's very suspicious. If The Jump broke out of a chest it would be pretty loud. It's not like you wouldn't notice, especially with The Jump."

Eriol put his hand to his chin as he thought a few seconds more, then came to the conclusion, "I wonder if Lisa had something to do with the card going berserk."

Kaho nodded her head to herself. That had been her first thought when Sakura had told her about the debacle as well.

"I don't believe that. Lisa wouldn't do something like that," Sakura protested, much like she had done when Kaho had first suggested it.

"I'm not saying Lisa did anything. I'm just saying that she might be involved. Maybe somebody else tricked her and she doesn't want to say anything because she's too afraid or something," Eriol said.

Sakura thought about that. She then changed the subject and asked, "What happened to the card though? You said it went berserk, why did it do that?"

"It's hard to say," Eriol admitted. "The card seems fine now, and it's properly linked to you. My first guess would be that somebody tried to misuse it."

"Misuse it? How?" Sakura asked.

"Well there are a lot of ways. Given how wizards and witches around here are, they probably did something like try and take a wand to it or something," Eriol said.

"Why would that be a problem?" Sakura asked.

"It all has to do with magic amplification. Do you know the difference between Eastern magic and Western magic?" Eriol asked.

Sakura shook her head.

Eriol switched to lecture mode and began to explain. "They have a lot of differences: in how they look at the world, what they try to do, and how they do it. A basic summary, though, is that Eastern magic is more based on direct magical power and Western magic is more based on tools. In the East, magic more comes from inside a person, whereas in the West, they tend to make items which contain and generate magic."

"What about Syaoran's Lasin Board? That's a magical item, but he was uses Eastern magic, doesn't he? He uses those oufuda too," Sakura asked. While it was true that she had seen a lot more magical things since coming to the United Kingdom as compared to her time in Japan, those two items stuck out in her mind as not fitting in with what Eriol had just said.

"His oufuda do help shape magic into an elemental form, but it was all still his internal energy being used. That's the key point of Eastern magic. You can use aids to give form or direction, but essentially all the power comes from inside of you. If a weaker wizard or witch were to try to use an oufuda, unlike with Western tools, the resulting effect would be much weaker than if you or he were to use the same oufuda," Eriol explained.

Eriol continued, saying, "The Lasin Board actually is a genuine magical item, as it uses a core thread of magic internal to itself to perform its function, but the Li family didn't make it. It was inherited from Clow, and even it is nothing compared to even the most basic broom that you can find everywhere around here."

"What about his sword then? He would use that to cast spells and even to activate cards. Isn't that a magical item?" Sakura asked.

"It is, kind of, but it's not the same," Eriol said. "His sword acts more like a scepter. It doesn't actually generate any magical energy, it only acts as a conduit to amplify it. No, amplify isn't the right word. It causes the energy to resonate and focuses it into a specific shape. It's like using a magnifying glass to focus sunlight onto a single point. The lens focuses the energy to a concentrated spot, but all of the energy still comes from the sun."

Sakura nodded her understanding, causing Eriol to continue, "His sword is actually very similar to the Key you use. The exact mechanism of how they work is different, but the end result is about the same. They both help you channel more energy and focus it, but in the end it's all your energy."

"Wow," Sakura said, then asked, "So if that's Eastern magic, what about Western magic?"

"In the West, they don't focus on developing the individual as much. They instead make magical devices which augment the user's own magic, or, at the extreme, run on their own. If you were to give a muggle the Key or Li's sword, they wouldn't be able to do anything with them. In contrast, if you were to give the same muggle a magic potion, they'd be able to cure a curse as easily as any wizard, and if you were to give a self-scrubbing pot, it would clean itself just fine no matter who was using it," Eriol said.

"However, keep in mind that your average wizard or witch here is a lot weaker than the ones in the East. I think they make magical items to overcome that. It might equally be true that they are weaker in general because they spend all their time focusing on items instead of exercising their power. Or maybe it's just that over the generations there has been a general degradation of magical power because the multitude of tools they have created has meant that it hasn't been as needed as in the East. However, no matter the reason, they are weaker in general. In a straight up comparison without any tools, almost everybody here would lose handily to an average wizard or witch in China, let alone somebody from the Li family, or even more so yourself," Eriol continued

"What about all of those spells I saw the professors casting? They were amazing. They can turn a desk into a pig, and freeze people, and stuff. I don't think I could do that," Sakura protested.

"I'm guessing they were using a wand when they cast those spells," Eriol said.

"Yes, they were," Sakura said.

"That's how they did it then," Eriol answered.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Don't you remember what I told you back in August?" Eriol asked.

"No I don't," Sakura admitted.

"That's okay. A wand is just a magical item, like a broom, a potion, or a piece of jewelry," Eriol said.

"It's not like the Key?" Sakura asked.

"No. It's very different. Unlike the Key, which just shapes power, the wand actually creates it. In the heart of every wand is some magical core," Eriol said.

"Like my feather," Keroberos boasted.

"Yes, like Keroberos's feather," Eriol confirmed. "Remember how I took one from him before making your wand? That's the core of your wand. Your energy doesn't actually go through the wand. Instead it activates this magical core, which then generates its own power. That's what gets emitted from the wand. It's kind of like flipping on the switch to a light bulb. It only takes a little bit of energy from you to flick the switch because the light itself is powered by a different source."

"Wow," Sakura said. "So then which way is the right way then, Eastern or Western magic?"

"Neither one is right," Eriol said. "Neither one is wrong either."

"Hoe?" Sakura said in confusion. "But you said that the people here aren't as strong as in the East, right? Doesn't that mean that the Eastern way is the right one?"

"Would you consider a human slower than a horse, or weaker than gorilla?" Eriol asked.

Sakura thought for a few seconds then said, "Yes."

"Even though a person on an airplane can fly faster than a horse could ever run, and a man with a hammer can open a nut which a gorilla never could?" Eriol continued.

Sakura hesitated, then asked, "So does that mean that the Western way is the right one then?"

"That's for you to learn and decide on your own. Both sides have their strengths and their weaknesses. The important thing is not to let others tell you what you can and can't do. There are countless types of magic, many still undiscovered in the world. You need to find your own way," Eriol said.

"Okay," Sakura said enthusiastically.

Eriol hesitated, and then added, "There is one thing, though. It's very important that you don't mix Eastern and Western magic, at least until you learn more about how everything fits together. They tend to not mix very well. Actually I think that's what happened to The Jump, if I'm not too far off."

"But Kero-chan said that the Clow Cards were a mixture of Eastern and Western magic," Sakura said.

"Yes, but the cards are very special. It's one of the few times, maybe the only time, in which Eastern and Western magic have been mixed. They are primarily based in Eastern magic, which is why the Key acts the way it does. What's different about the cards is that they exist as independent magical entities as well. That's why different ones have different personalities and they can do things on their own, like when you first found them. That's also why they will eventually disappear without a mistress, as the magic within them slowly depletes. Even so, it's dangerous to expose them to Western style magic, even if they have aspects of Western magic inside of them," Eriol said.

"What's wrong with mixing Western magic with the cards?" Sakura asked.

"The cards expect raw magic from the user to work with. That's why I said they are primarily based in Eastern magic. However, when you use a wand, the fact that the majority of energy comes from the independent magical core rather than yourself corrupts both the energy and its intent with aspects of the core itself. If you fed that into a card, who knows what would happen to it? I think somebody probably tried to use a wand on The Jump and that's what caused it to act out," Eriol said.

"Then that bad feeling I got?" Sakura asked.

"It was probably the left over energy from the wand cast at The Jump," Eriol said.

"But that would mean that somebody tried to steal the book," Sakura said.

"Most likely, yes," Eriol agreed. "That's why I said that you should keep an eye on Lisa, and keep the book with you at all times. It's too dangerous to leave lying around."

Sakura nodded and wholeheartedly agreed to do so.

The rest of the meal, and indeed the entire visit with Eriol and Kaho, passed by quickly. Sakura had only scheduled a few hours at Reed Manor, and these disappeared in what seemed like mere moments as Sakura regaled Eriol and Ruby with her adventures in Hogwarts. In the meantime, Keroberos spent a lot of time playing around with and teasing "Suppi."

* * *

The trip to Japan was much less nerve wracking than the trip from Japan had been. While the exciting edge of the unknown was no longer present, this did little to dampen Sakura's anticipation of the prospect of returning to Japan. If anything, she was more excited than she had been on her trip from her home country; she missed her family so much.

This did little to console Keroberos. His flight was almost as uncomfortable as the first long trip they had taken across the globe. His situation had slightly improved, as Sakura's backpack was no longer crammed to overflowing with stuff, but even so he looked forward to having a chance to stretch his wings once they had landed and were somewhere safe.

After too many hours, the plane touching ground signaled the beginning of the end of Keroberos's suffering. The trip through customs went very much like the same trip in the United Kingdom had gone. The airport had a staff member on hand to escort Sakura and to help her through the process, and overall her passage went very smoothly.

As they went through customs, Sakura was struck by how much easier a time she had in the airport here with all of its Japanese than in the United Kingdom airport with all of its English. It was only after she spent time in a place where she had to think about every word she said that she realized how much she took casual communication for granted.

Once past customs, Keroberos had assumed that they would take a quiet trip home, hopefully with the chance to get out of his cramped quarters and to get a meal at the other end. Unbeknownst to him, though, Keroberos would have a long time to wait for either. Any hopes for a low-key arrival were quickly dashed to the ground, as waiting at the gate were Fujitaka, Toya, Yukito, Sonomi, and Tomoyo, the latter surrounded by a complement of bodyguards.

When Sonomi spotted Sakura she waved frantically and called out. Tomoyo took the more direct, if unapproved, approach and ran into the exit to meet Sakura. The two met and hugged.

"My dear Sakura-chan. Welcome back!" Tomoyo announced.

"Hello Tomoyo-chan," Sakura said.

"This way, this way. We have a big party set up for you. Everybody's there. Chiharu-chan and Takashi-kun and everybody else, and they're all are looking forward to seeing you. And we have a big cake and everything, too," Tomoyo said.

In truth Sakura was a bit tired from her long trip and the associated timezone changes. However, it was impossible not to be swept up in Tomoyo's energy and enthusiasm. Rest would have to come later.

Sakura left the exit hand-in-hand with Tomoyo.

"Welcome back, Sakura-san," Fujitaka said.

"Welcome back, Sakura-chan," Yukito said.

Sonomi took the much more direct approach instead, very much like her daughter, and gave Sakura a giant hug. "I missed you, Sakura-chan," she said.

"Hoe," Sakura said, still holding hands with Tomoyo despite the surprise hug.

While Sakura was having the wind squeezed out of her by Sonomi, Yukito nudged Toya a bit, and said, "Hey, aren't you going to say hi to her or anything?"

Toya grumped a bit at Yukito's suggestion, but did turn to Sakura and say, "Welcome back."

"Don't mind him," Yukito interrupted. "He really missed you. Me too."

Sakura felt too good at finally seeing everybody after what seemed like an eternity to take too much offense, and simply said, "I'm back."

Sakura finally let go of Tomoyo, albeit briefly, to let Fujitaka take her backpack from her. The group then walked out of the airport in procession. All of the bystanders naturally moved out of the way of the bodyguard protected entourage.

Waiting outside of the airport was a limousine every bit as extravagant as the one which had taken Sakura to the airport all those months ago. Before Sakura could stop him, Fujitaka put her backpack in the trunk of the vehicle, and so Keroberos enjoyed another bumpy trip through the darkness to the Tomoyo household.

The limousine pulled up to the front entrance of Tomoyo's house, the building looking every bit as resplendent as Sakura remembered it being. Fujitaka got out of the vehicle first, pulling open the door for Sakura and treating her very much like a princess. Sonomi then opened the front door of the house for her, revealing the festive decorations inside and signaling the arrival of the guest of honor. Sakura's friends had lined up at the door, and several blew party favors in honor of Sakura's entrance.

"Welcome back!" they cheered.

"Everybody," Sakura whispered.

She might have stood at the doorway forever except that Tomoyo was right behind her, pushing her forward into the house saying, "Come in, come in."

All of the collected people crowded around her and started talking at once.

"How was your trip?" Rika asked.

"How was the United Kingdom?" Chiharu asked.

"Did you make lots of new friends?" Naoko asked.

"Did you see any dragons?" Takashi asked.

"How is the school?" Naoko asked again.

"What does your uniform look like?" Takashi asked again as well.

"Hoeeee," Sakura said, taking a step back and waving her hands at the overload. "One at a time."

Rika took the initiative and repeated her first question. "How was your trip?"

"The trip was good. Very long and tiring, but it was a lot easier than the trip to the United Kingdom," Sakura answered.

"How was the United Kingdom? Did you see any dragons?" Takashi asked.

Chiharu bonked him on the head, saying, "You dummy. Everybody knows that dragons aren't real."

Sakura joined everybody else in the room in a quick laugh, even if she wasn't as sure as everybody else that dragons didn't really exist.

"Can you say something in English?" Chiharu asked.

Sakura paused, trying to think of something to say, then said in English, "The weather is really nice today."

"Wow," Several people said, with Naoko adding, "It's English."

"How are the classes there? Are they like the ones here?" Rika asked.

"They're really different," Sakura said.

"How are they different?" Rika asked.

Sakura paused. She wanted to say that they were magical in nature, but thought that that might not be the best idea. Instead she said, "It's hard to describe. They're more disorganized, I guess. For example, we have to switch rooms for each of the classes."

"That sounds like a lot of trouble. How do you have time to learn anything with all of that moving about?" Naoko asked.

"It works itself out. The castle's huge, but it doesn't take that long to move from classroom to classroom," Sakura said. She mentally added the qualifier to herself that it didn't take too long so long as the moving staircases weren't being obstinate.

"Wait, castle? Did you say castle?" Rika asked.

"Yes. The whole school's a giant castle. It's a lot bigger than Tomoeda Elementary School," Sakura said.

"Wow," Naoko and Rika said. The others stared at Takashi, who gave no reaction to this news besides his normal smile behind closed eyes.

"But why don't they just move the teachers around instead of the students? It sounds like it'd be a lot easier to just move one adult than a whole class full of students?" Chiharu asked.

"Maybe they just never thought of it," Rika said

"I don't know. Some of the classes do use special equipment, I guess, so maybe they thought it would be easier if the students always went between the classes," Sakura suggested.

"Strange," Chiharu said.

"Did you meet up with lots of new friends?" Naoko asked, taking advantage of a lull in the conversation.

Sakura said, "Yes. The people are great. There's Lisa," the English accented name sounded strange in the flow of Japanese. "She's really nice. There's Gloria too. She likes to go on adventures. There's also Anthony, who knows a lot of things as well."

Tomoyo already knew all of this and a lot more from the frequent letters she exchanged with Sakura so she mostly stayed quiet during this series of questions and just enjoyed Sakura's company. That didn't help the pangs of jealousy she felt of all these new friends Sakura was making in her life, but she could tell Sakura was happy and that was much more important to her.

"What uniform do you wear there?" Takashi asked.

Tomoyo quickly snapped out of her reverie and said, "Yes. What does it look like? Did you bring it with you? Try it on."

"Ahhh, I didn't bring it with me," Sakura said. She hadn't thought at all about packing it for the trip back to Japan. "It's not very good, though. It's just some regular clothes and a large cloak with our house symbols on them. The uniforms at Tomoeda Elementary School are much cuter."

Tomoyo's sighed in disappointment. She had been looking forward to seeing what Sakura was wearing now and making sure it met her strict fashion standards. She would need to be more insistent that Sakura send back pictures once she went back to the United Kingdom.

Tomoyo's sigh went unnoticed, though, as it was covered by Rika's asking, "House symbols?"

"Yes. They divide all of the students into these four different houses. It's kind of like a class, except we do more things together and live in the same place. The house I'm in is called Ravenclaw," Sakura said.

Nobody in the room recognized the word, but they assumed it was because they didn't know enough English.

During this most recent lull in the conversation, while everybody was digesting this particular piece of news, Tomoyo announced from the side of the room, "Now it's time for the big surprise."

This caused everybody to turn and look at her.

"Surprise?" Sakura asked. She looked from face to face, but saw no hint that anybody else had any idea what this big surprise was.

"Yes. In honor of your first return to Japan, we arranged an extra special present," Tomoyo announced. As she said this, she slowly pulled the door she was standing beside open.

In a flash, everything between Sakura and the open door faded away, leaving only a corridor of color in a white universe. Standing behind the now open door stood Syaoran.

"Syaoran-kun," Sakura whispered to herself. Then louder, "Syaoran-kun!"

All of the fatigue caused by her plane long trip and her lack of sleep melted away from Sakura, completely forgotten in her excitement as she ran forward to give Syaoran a huge hug.

"Welcome back," Syaoran said, returning the hug.

"Hey! Don't forget about me too," a girl said from beside Syaoran.

"Oh, Mei-Ling-chan, too. Hello," Sakura said. She hadn't even noticed Mei-Ling standing next to Syaoran earlier.

"What's this, 'Oh, Mei-Ling-chan too. Hello'? I took this long trip and that's all the welcome I get?" Mei-Ling protested.

Sakura only paid her the barest of attention, instead being entirely preoccupied with Syaoran. She asked him, "How did you get here?"

"Tomoyo-chan told us about it a few weeks ago and arranged it all: the visas, the tickets, everything," Syaoran said.

"Hello?" Mei-Ling asked, waving her hand to Sakura.

"Thank you, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura said, bowing slightly to her friend.

"Anything for my dear Sakura-chan," Tomoyo said, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Hello?" Mei-Ling asked again.

The rest of the conversation involved Sakura catching up with everybody. She was intensely curious what everybody had been doing in her absence. She had gotten a few of the highlights from Tomoyo, as well as from Syaoran and Mei-Ling and occasionally from the others, by mail. However, they only included brief highlights in the letters. None contained any of the in-depth details of the developments that had arisen since she had left.

Everybody else was equally curious what Sakura had been doing at her new school. She carefully tried to avoid all mention of magic and so was put on the spot more than once trying to explain things. This got to be particularly tricky while trying to explain the school's obsession, or at least half of the school's obsession, with Quiditch. She did a poor job explaining it, and her Japanese friends were left with the impression that it was like soccer only a bit weird, which fit in with their world view of everything outside of Japan quite well.

Half-way through the discussion Tomoyo brought out an enormous cake, easily the size of one of the smaller party attendants, much to the delight of everybody present. Its size was only surpassed by its deliciousness, and everybody in the party greatly enjoyed it. Sakura made a note to herself to save an extra large piece for Keroberos.

* * *

The party was over and most of the visitors had left. Toya, Yukito, and Fujitaka had headed home early, both to set up the house and to let Sakura spend some time alone with her friends. All of the other guests had headed home as well. The only exceptions were Syaoran and Mei-Ling, who were staying with Tomoyo for their short stay in Japan. This conveniently gave them a chance to catch up for real after retrieving Sakura's backpack and retiring to Tomoyo's room.

Once they were safely alone they opened the backpack and let Keroberos out, who gasped for air as he made his escape.

"What's the big idea, keeping me all cooped up in there. I thought I was gonna to die," Keroberos said.

"So the great Guardian Beast can't even handle that?" Syaoran teased.

"What'd ya say, kid?" Keroberos said back. There was much less malice in their voices than there once had been, and an impartial viewer might have almost thought they were friends just kidding around.

"Sorry, Kero-chan," Sakura said. Then offering a large plate with an even larger piece of cake on it to Keroberos, she said, "Here, have some cake."

Keroberos, predictably, let the subject drop, and cheered, "Yaayyy! Cake! Let's eat!"

He then flew face-first into the cake, mouth held wide open.

While Keroberos ate, Syaoran double-checked the door was closed then asked Sakura in a low voice, "So, how are things really going then?"

"It's really different. There's lots of magic things everywhere, like flying brooms and moving pictures and stuff," Sakura started saying.

"That sounds really strange," Syaoran said. "Moving pictures?"

"Flying brooms? Why would you make a broom fly? That kind of defeats the purpose of them, doesn't it?" Mei-Ling asked.

"It's true," Sakura insisted. "There's all these magical creatures everywhere too, like elves, trolls, and centaurs."

"That sounds wonderful," Tomoyo said, eyes glittering in imagination.

"It's not what ya're thinking of," Keroberos said. "It's not like a fairytale or something. They're just ordinary creatures, not that special."

"What kind of magic are you learning?" Tomoyo asked. Magic had only been alluded to in the letters, as Sakura never could be sure who would read them.

"Yeah. Learn any cool spells or anything?" Syaoran added.

"Nothing that special yet," Sakura said.

"Come on, you must have learned at least one spell there," Syaoran said.

"Well it isn't that impressive but I learned a few of them," Sakura said.

"Well?" Mei-Ling asked.

"Well what?" Sakura asked.

"Well why don't you show us one," Mei-Ling said.

"Wait. Let me get my video recorder first," Tomoyo said. She kept a camcorder handy on a desk for just this sort of situation.

"Hoe," Sakura said, but capitulated.

Her first instinct was to transfigure something, but a quick look around the room revealed nothing suitable for the task. A potion demonstration was not possible either. Sakura eventually decided that demonstrating a charm might be easiest and mentally flipped through the repertoire of charms she was confident she could cast before eventually settling on an appropriate one.

Sakura pulled her wand out from her backpack, and said, "Okay. Here I go. Wingardium Leviosa."

Across the room, a pillow on Tomoyo's bed drifted into the air. It rose slowly, to the point that for a moment Tomoyo, Syaoran, and Mei-Ling thought it might have been their eyes playing tricks on them. However, it soon became apparent that the pillow was in fact being suspended several feet off of the bed.

It held in the air for a few seconds before Mei-Ling asked, "Is that it?"

"Huh?" Sakura asked.

"Just making that pillow levitate, is that all that spell does?" Mei-Ling asked again.

"I guess so," Sakura said.

"That's the stuff you've been learning? That seems kind of silly. You can do a lot more than that with the Sakura Cards. Even a first year student in China can do a lot more than that before they even start learning in school," Syaoran said.

"I think it's wonderful," Tomoyo said. It wasn't nearly as flashy as when Sakura used one of the cards, but as Sakura was doing it, Tomoyo didn't care.

"I'm not very good at it yet. The teachers can do a lot more than that," Sakura said.

Mei-Ling snorted, and said, "Like what, moving a bed? I guess that might help with cleaning or something."

"I guess ya don't know how magic works then," Keroberos retorted. "They're spells might not be that strong, but there's a lot more to magic than that. They do all sorts of different stuff there, like teleporting and transforming into animals. They can take all the bones out of a person with a flick of the wand, and then with a little drink regrow them from scratch. There's plants which will kill ya if ya hear 'em, cloaks which make ya invisible, and they even have a way to live forever. They just do things different there."

"If you say so," Mei-Ling said.

"Teleporting? Invisibility? Plants which can kill people?" Syaoran asked, far less dismissively than Mei-Ling.

"Yes," Sakura said. "They are always telling us about dangerous plants in class, like how to handle them and what they can be used for. One of them acts like a person, and if you aren't careful it will shout out and can kill you."

"That's really strange. Why would they grow plants which are that dangerous?" Tomoyo asked.

"They use them to make things like potions, which can cure people of things. The book also says that mandrake plants are used for other things too, but we haven't really talked very much about them in class," Sakura said.

"What about the teleportation? Can you jump across the room or something?" Syaoran asked.

"We haven't talked about apparition in class yet either. I think it's a higher level spell. However, I did take this thing call the floo network to travel across the country in an instant. We spend more time doing things like transforming matches into needles, or making potions which can cure poisons and burns," Sakura said.

"Turning a match into a needle? How pointless. If I wanted a needle I'd just get a needle. There's no reason to use magic for that," Mei-Ling said.

"I don't know. Being able to teleport sounds like it might be fun," Syaoran said.

"It's not just that neither. They got lots of really practical things too, like teapots which serve themselves, and bags that can carry a whole house worth of stuff," Keroberos added.

"That sounds really convenient," Tomoyo said.

"We don't have anything like that at home," Syaoran said.

"It seems like everybody can use the things they have there, too. Like those flying brooms. People use them to fly, and I can barely feel any magic from most of the students. I'll bet that even you might be able to use them, Mei-Ling-chan," Sakura said.

Mei-Ling opened her mouth to answer, but then closed it again. Being the only person in the Li family to not be able to use magic was a terrible feeling, and the possibility of finally being able to use some magic was causing Mei-Ling to reconsider her initial position.

"Hmm," Syaoran muttered, a thoughtful look on his face.

After a pause, Tomoyo asked, "Why don't you tell us about the other things going on?"

"Well, there was one strange thing about a month ago," Sakura said.

Sakura launched into her third explanation of her adventure on that cool November day when The Jump had gone berserk. Telling the story hadn't quite become routine yet, but it was approaching that state. She concluded her story by explaining Eriol's hypothesis about what had happened to The Jump.

Syaoran was the first person to respond, saying "I think he might have a point. It's really suspicious that that Lisa person was in the dorm but didn't see anything if you ask me."

"Lisa wouldn't do something like that," Sakura said, much like she had to Eriol earlier.

"Then why didn't she tell you what happened?" Mei-Ling asked.

"I don't know, but Lisa's my friend. She wouldn't do something like that," Sakura insisted.

"So what's Lisa like?" Tomoyo asked.

"Her family has some problems of some kind, but she didn't tell me very much about it. She's really nice, though. She knows a lot about magic, too. She likes to spend all her time studying," Sakura said.

"She doesn't know as much Sakura, though. She's nowhere near as strong either," Keroberos said.

"She sounds like a nice person," Tomoyo said. "What about the other people you mentioned in your letters? You mentioned them earlier but didn't say very much about them," Tomoyo said.

"Well, Anthony is a smart person. He helps his parents run an inn, I think. He's the first one in his family to go to Hogwarts, and he's excited about it. Gloria likes to go on adventures and explore around the castle and stuff. Everything's an adventure with her," Sakura said.

"What about Hiiragizawa-kun, and Mizuki-sensei?" Tomoyo asked.

"They are doing well," Sakura started explaining.

The rest of the conversation was spent describing the people Sakura had met in Hogwarts, which then led to a more general catching up with each other about what had developed in their magical lives since they had last met. Throughout the conversation, Sakura wasn't as good a conversationalist as she might have been. No matter how enthusiastic she was, having only a little bit of sleep on a plane for the past 36 hours had taken its toll on her and she was tired.

They eventually broke for an early evening with a promise to meet up the next day for a fun and exciting trip around town.

* * *

Time in Japan passed by quickly; almost as quickly as her brief stay in Reed Manor in Sakura's opinion. It had taken a couple of days to stop wanting to sleep through the day and waking up in the middle of the night. Once that particular difficulty was overcome, she spent the rest of the visit with Tomoyo, Syaoran, Mei-Ling, her family, and her other friends having fun around town.

Inevitably the time had to come to an end, though. When the day finally came, Sakura bid a sad, although not tearful, goodbye again, safe in the assurance she would see them again soon.

As she boarded the plane to the United Kingdom for the second time, she regretted that she hadn't been able to use the portkeys that Eriol had made for her. While she did like the luxury of the miniature room she had access to in the first class cabin of the plane, with its easy availability of snacks and the cabin crew catering to her every request, being able to teleport across the world would have saved so much time and effort. She would need to figure out some plausible explanation why her father and Sonomi wouldn't need to arrange for a flight back home once Kaho had everything arranged for her.

In contrast to Sakura, whose longing for a faster way to the United Kingdom was tinged with regret at the loss of the first class luxury she got to enjoy, Keroberos had absolutely no regret about the possibility of leaving the long uncomfortable plane rides behind. As could be expected, he thoroughly did not enjoy the eternities he felt stuffed in a cramped dark backpack.

The entire trip proceeded without fanfare, and Sakura and Keroberos arrived at Reed Manor without incident. From there, after a few hours to recuperate, they joined with Kaho to travel back to Hogwarts to finish out Sakura's year at this magical school.

* * *

Last Updated: February 5, 2013


	10. 10: Sakura's White Day

Chapter 10: Sakura's White Day

After returning from her trip to Japan, Sakura found that life in Hogwarts was very much like life had been before the holiday season.

The most obvious indication of this was the disappearance of the decorations surrounding the castle. By the time she had returned to Hogwarts, all of the Christmas decorations had been removed. This only had the effect restoring the castle to its ordinary level of splendor. It wasn't just the physical setting that had been reverted either. Shortly after Sakura's return, the Hogwarts Express and its load of students had arrived, filling the school with life and restoring a vivacious atmosphere to the castle.

Sakura had been the first Ravenclaw girl to return and was sitting in the Ravenclaw common room alone, reading through her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook, when all of the students on the Hogwarts Express entered. She managed to catch up with Lisa and Anthony the moment they entered Ravenclaw Tower, and had found Gloria shortly thereafter.

Lisa had enjoyed a pleasant, intimate Christmas with her parents. In contrast, Gloria's family had opted for something more exotic and had gone on their traditional long holiday through continental Europe; this year's destination had been Paris. Anthony expressed some jealousy at all of the girls' carefree break, having been forced to work for his parents throughout the holiday rush.

Since returning to Hogwarts, there was one major change Sakura had noticed as compared to the previous year. The change was more in herself than anything, and it was her attitude towards Lisa. Sakura honestly thought that Lisa had nothing to do with The Jump's rampage, but after having so many people point the finger of suspicion, it was hard not to keep an extra close eye on her roommate.

After Sakura spent the evening catching up with her friends, the daily routine of school life picked up more or less right where it had left off without any event or incident. That was only inside of the classroom, though. Outside of class, there had been a brief bit of excitement in Sakura's personal life.

From her past experiences with the mail, she knew it could sometimes take weeks for a parcel to travel from her to Syaoran in Hong Kong or to her family and Tomoyo in Japan. She had been idly thinking about this when she looked forward in the calendar and realized that Valentine's Day was just a few weeks away as well. This had led to her spending a frantic evening putting together a gift package to send to Syaoran.

It had been quite a trick to get into the kitchen to make some chocolates for him. In the end, Kaho had managed to pull a few strings and arranged for Sakura to get access to both some supplies as well as one of the stoves on the side of the kitchen for a few hours.

Without the help of Tomoyo or anybody else, the end result of Sakura's efforts ended up being several rather clumsily made chocolates. However, they were brimming with handmade love and affection, and that more than made up for the sloppy edges and occasional lump they contained.

The final step in the process had been for Sakura to entrust her confections and a hand written valentine to Kaho, who in turn promised to make sure that Eriol would send them in time for Syaoran to receive them by Valentine's Day.

After this brief bit of excitement, Sakura's life finally returned to its regular pattern of classes, studying, castle exploration, and the occasional Quidditch match.

Classes were very much like they had been before the break. Professor Snape was still glowering, Professor Binns was still boring, and Professor McGonagall was still able to hold her classes in awe with her presence and force of personality.

Potions class had moved on to more complicated formula, using six or seven ingredients now and multiple containers. Sakura still excelled in this class relative to her classmates, at least whenever she remembered to pay attention to the idiosyncratic rules the formulas dictated. Strangely, even when her mind wandered and she didn't pay exacting attention to the inscrutable instructions while brewing her potions, Professor Snape would only very rarely correct her, either not noticing or choosing not to call her out on it. Professor Snape's tacit favoritism from early in the school year had grown to the point that everybody in the class noticed it. Deborah was desperate to find out Sakura's secret, having been caught by Professor Snape's sharp tongue far too often, but Sakura had no explanation for his behavior either.

Whatever good fortune had blessed Sakura in Potions class, though, it certainly did not extend to Charms class. Eriol's explanation about how a wand was different than the Key had helped a little, but only to the point that Sakura now had an intellectual understanding of what was going on. It didn't help her in actually being able to use her wand to cast charms. She still felt a major lack of control whenever she tried to follow Professor Flitwick's instructions, and she frequently found herself deviating from procedure whenever she let her mind wander too much. Unlike Professor Snape, though, Professor Flitwick would always seem to notice whenever she did something wrong, and his constant chastising of Sakura to pay more attention and follow his instructions became a common refrain in class. Sakura was becoming increasingly annoyed as the weeks progressed, not only at the class and Professor Flitwick for having instructions which were so counterintuitive and hard to follow but at herself as well for not being able to follow the instructions even though she thought she understood what she was supposed to do.

Unlike Charms class, Sakura's intuition helped her considerably in Herbology class. She seemed to have a natural affinity to plants which stood her in good stead. Her natural instincts only seemed to take her so far, though. Since the start of school, the other first year Ravenclaw students had slowly but steadily caught up to her, and since classes had restarted she found herself solidly in the middle of class.

One class Sakura was having much more success in was the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. After the long holiday break, Professor Quirrel seemed much more energetic than before, and he brought this new found energy into the classroom. This suited Sakura quite well, who had devoted much more of her time and effort into the subject since the Halloween scare with the troll. She had learned a great deal about many magical threats since that time, even if she would never be able to look at an iguana the same way ever again; and while she wasn't the absolute top of the class, she was definitely one of the students the others turned to for assistance whenever they had problems with their homework.

In contrast, one class Sakura had started out poorly in and continued to do poorly in was Flying class. When she had first encountered magic with the Clow Cards, Sakura had been delighted to fly on the Key through the night sky. Footage that Tomoyo still had sequestered safely away in her Memorial Video box proved that. However, that was before Sakura had learned to fly on her own two wings. Since experiencing the increased mobility and stability the current incarnation of The Fly provided her, the idea of sitting on a stick flying through the air now felt precarious, constrained, and uncomfortable. The fact that her transportation might explode out from under her at any moment didn't help either. As a result, her skill of flying on a broomstick had only shown limited improvement even after months of practice. It was a commentary on the poor performance of the first year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students as a whole that Sakura was still solidly in the middle of the class here as well, despite her continued challenges.

Any hopes that the History of Magic class would improve after the break proved to be entirely in vain. Professor Binns had returned, just as monotonous as ever. It might have been due to English not being her native language, but Sakura swore that Professor Binns had started class in mid-sentence right where he had left off last December, as if the long break hadn't even happened. It wasn't long until Sakura, like the majority of the class, had soundly fallen asleep.

Astronomy class had also failed to improve after Sakura's extended break from it. Professor Sinistra hadn't revealed some withheld revelation about the true power of the heavens, and Sakura found the class just as lackluster as it had been before the holiday. In fact class was now worse than ever, as the chilly winter air made the Astronomy Tower that much colder and less hospitable than before. Even an overcast night was no reprieve, as the students would still be expected to gather in the tower and stare at star charts at a time when Sakura would much rather have been sleeping in her warm bed.

In contrast to the uninspiring and frigid Astronomy class, Transfiguration class had continued to develop and was more exciting than ever post-holiday. Sakura's skills in it had increased in equal measure, and she was now undoubtedly the best performing student in the subject. It was rapidly becoming Sakura's favorite class as well, and she looked forward to the days she could see Professor McGonagall and learn more about the fascinating subject. It was this reason that Sakura was walking towards Professor McGonagall's classroom with a particular spring in her step.

Sakura surreptitiously patted the inside pocket of her robe, checking yet again that she had all of the Sakura Cards with her. Keroberos occasionally teased her, expressing mock amazement that Sakura was actually succeeding in keep the cards with her all the time post-holiday, but it was indisputable that Sakura had yet to leave the cards behind in the dorm room since the incident with The Jump. Whether it was a coincidence or it was Sakura's presence, none of the cards had given any hint of going rogue like The Jump had last November.

Sakura was standing with the rest of her classmates at the top of a staircase, waiting for what seemed like the millionth time for it to adjust so they could get to class. Luckily, they had plenty of time, so the stairs just seemed quaint and annoying rather than interminably slow and evil.

"What do you think Professor McGonagall is going to teach us today?" Lisa asked as the staircase locked into place

"I don't know, but it should be exciting," Sakura said. "That's what she told us last time, right?"

"No. That is not what she said. She just told that we would be starting something new today," Lisa said.

"I hope so. I'm getting so bloody tired of trying to make that bloody vase," Anthony said from behind the pair.

"It wasn't that bad," Sakura said, carefully keeping her eyes forward as they walked down the stairs.

"Speak for yourself. I can barely get the blasted box to curve. I swear this is the hardest class in the entire school," Anthony said.

"What are you talking about? Transfigurations are not nearly as difficult as charms are. I still cannot get that feather to fly right," Lisa said.

"What? That's easy. Trying to turn a wooden box into a glass vase? Now that's bloody impossible," Anthony said.

"Maybe charms are easy if you have had years of practice, unlike some of us here," Lisa said, having stopped at the bottom of the stairs to turn and face Anthony. The rest of the class continued forward on their slow pace, ignoring the discussion the three students were having.

"That's not it. Charms are just much easier than transfigurations are. Isn't that right, Sakura?" Anthony asked, turning to face Sakura.

"No. Transfigurations are easy and charms are just impossible, is that not so, Sakura?" Lisa asked in turn, likewise turning to face Sakura.

"Hoe?" Sakura asked, suddenly faced with intense stares from both of her friends. "I think charms are harder than transfigurations."

"See?" Lisa said.

"That doesn't prove anything," Anthony said. "It's so unfair."

"Unfair? What do you mean unfair?" Lisa asked.

Anthony affected the posture of a boy who knew how the world worked and said, "Everybody knows that girls always stick together. Boys don't do that. And girls always get everything too. If there's a fight the boy always gets blamed, and we're always being told to be nice to girls. Like on Valentine's Day, we have to give out chocolates even if we don't like a girl."

"On Valentine's Day? That's strange. Girls are supposed to give boys chocolate on Valentine's Day," Sakura said.

"No, that is not right at all," Lisa said. "Boys are supposed to give girls chocolate on Valentine's Day."

"Yes it is. I'm sure," Sakura said. Memories of making chocolate late into the night in January were still vivid in her memories.

Lisa looked to Anthony for support, who despite his comments moments ago found himself settling the disagreement between the two girls. He said, "I'm sure boys give girls chocolates. We always have to set up the inn special on Valentine's Day, and all these boys show up and give these girls these large boxes," Anthony said.

"No," Sakura insisted as she started walking towards the classroom again, the other two just behind her. "Girls give boys chocolate on Valentine's day. The day boys give girls presents is Howaito De."

"What is Howaito De?" Lisa asked.

"It's maybe White Day?" Sakura tried again, turning the words around in her mouth to pronounce them in a more English way.

"Okay, then what is White Day?" Lisa asked.

"White Day is White Day," Sakura tried to explain. "It's the day that the boys are supposed to give gifts back to the girls."

"You mean Valentine's Day?" Anthony asked.

"No, that's the day that girls give boys chocolates. White Day is the day that the boys give presents back to the girls," Sakura insisted.

"What?" Lisa asked.

"Things are strange in Japan," Anthony said with a shrug towards Lisa.

"Then what day is this White Day?" Lisa asked.

"It's," Sakura thought for a bit, "March 14."

Anthony paused in thought before asking, "March 14? That's tomorrow isn't it? This isn't some trick to get me to buy you some chocolate or anything, is it? "

"Oh, it is tomorrow," Sakura said, abruptly stopping at the sudden revelation and almost causing Anthony to run into her back. Thoughts of White Day naturally led Sakura to think about Syaoran half a world away.

"You are blushing," Lisa said as Sakura's cheeks turned red. "Is it..."

"Time to get started. Settle down children," Professor McGonagall said cutting off all the students' conversations and saving Sakura from a potentially embarrassing conversation. All the Ravenclaws instantly quieted down and took their seats. Professor McGonnagal had that effect on all of her classes.

"Some of you have mastered the basics of transfiguration," Professor McGonagall said, casting a glance at Sakura, "while some of you have continued to struggle," Professor McGonagall continued, casting a second glance at Anthony.

"If you are in the second category, I expect you to spend a lot of time studying in your off-hours to figure out what you're doing wrong. That should come naturally to you Ravenclaws. You had better learn fast, too, because today we're moving on. Today you are going to start learning about the transfiguration of living animals," Professor McGonagall said.

Professor McGonagall then launched into a long theoretical discussion about the differences between trying to transfigure an inanimate object, like a match, and a living animal, like a mouse. Most importantly, a living animal had its own will and, even if transfigured, would maintain it. As such, if the animal wanted to, its will would eventually allow it to restore itself to its original form; and every animal, no matter how simple, always wanted to revert to its natural form.

Sakura was only half paying attention to Professor McGonagall's lecture. With the realization that tomorrow was White Day, the pit had fallen out of her stomach, leaving a painful feeling of loneliness gripping her heart. If she were home right now she would be with her family and she would surely get a package from Syaoran, and maybe even a visit from him. However, that just couldn't happen with her halfway around the world. It was almost enough to bring her to tears, although she managed to keep enough control of herself to prevent an unseemly scene.

Professor McGonagall continued with her lecture irrespective of Sakura's preoccupation. She continued to talk about class safety and the dangers of what they were going to be doing. She also gave some advice for the squeamish about how to handle the animals and the proper procedures for dealing with them. All in all it, was everything they had gone through when they first started Transfiguration class last September, only more so. This included an impressive demonstration of power and magic that Professor McGonagall performed. The demonstration went mostly unnoticed by Sakura, though, as lost in her own world as she was.

In an attempt to distract herself, Sakura tried to refocus herself on what Professor McGonagall was talking about. She found it exceedingly difficult, though. The normally fascinating Transfiguration class had lost all of its luster in the face of Sakura's loneliness, and what Professor McGonagall was talking about only barely registered to Sakura. Even so, the poor distraction was better than nothing.

* * *

Sakura was walking towards Kaho's office carrying several letters. It was Saturday, and while that meant there were no classes for Sakura to sit through in a distracted state, it also meant that unlike the previous day, there were no classes to distract Sakura from her loneliness this White Day. Instead, Sakura had distracted herself by composing several letters in her head that she planned to send to her family, Tomoyo, and, most importantly, Syaoran.

During lunch Lisa had brought Wayne to join them at the Ravenclaw table while Gloria had wandered over to join Sakura, Lisa, and Anthony of her own volition. The five had then spent the meal talking about how classes since the holidays had been going. Sakura had only half-heartedly participated in the conversation, though. She had been preoccupied thinking about what to write to Syaoran, and so barely said anything except to answer specific questions that had been asked directly to her.

After lunch, Gloria had suggested the group go castle-exploring. Anthony had had no interest in practicing his transfigurations, Lisa had had no interest in practicing her charms, and Wayne had had no interest in practicing his potions; so they had all quickly agreed to join Gloria. Sakura, on the other hand, had begged-off, explaining that she had some letters she wanted to write instead.

So while the four students had gone wandering throughout the castle, Gloria as always trying to get them to explore the mysterious third floor while the other three came up with every reason not to, Sakura had gone back to the Ravenclaw common room and put quill to paper to write the long letters she had been composing.

The actual writing of the letter had proved to be relatively fast, especially as compared to amount of time she spent writing out her daily homework in English. In about an hour Sakura had three multi-page documents written with only a minimal number of mistakes and scratched out kanji characters. Writing with ink and quills was much more tedious and difficult than writing with pencils and their ever handy erasers, and the stray drops of ink that quills sometimes dropped risked transforming a kanji character into nonsense, but as quills were the only writing utensils that Hogwarts seemed to have Sakura was forced to use them.

Once the letters had been successfully composed, Sakura had then ventured into the halls of Hogwarts to reach Kaho's office, taking the shortcut she and Gloria had discovered all those months ago when her term at Hogwarts had originally started.

Sakura wasn't consciously aware of it, but there was a huge difference within her as compared how she had been that day last September when they had first found this shortcut. The Sakura from the start of the school year would never have ventured into the ghost-laden hallways of Hogwarts on her own. In contrast, the Sakura who made her way to Kaho's office to deliver her letters in March had no problem traveling through the dimly lit hidden corridor. She had spent so much time in the castle that the whole place felt like a second home to her. Or at least it felt like a third home, if Tomoyo's mansion was her second home. Or maybe like a fourth home, if Reed Manor was her third home.

Sakura exited from the corridor and turned towards Kaho's office. At that exact moment, Kaho stepped out into the hallway, causing the two to almost collide.

"Oops. Sorry Sakura. I almost didn't see you," Kaho said.

"No, it's my fault," Sakura said, reflexively bowing to Kaho.

"Actually it's quite good timing that you should show up just now. I was about to go looking for you," Kaho said.

"You were? What for?" Sakura asked.

"Why don't you come in? It'll be easier to explain in here," Kaho said, leading Sakura into her office and to a seat. "The first thing is I heard back from the Japanese government about your portkeys."

"You did? So I can use them now instead of flying back and forth?" Sakura asked. She had decided that, while the luxury of flying was nice, she wouldn't miss it once she started being able to use Eriol's faster and more convenient magical mode of transportation.

"I'm afraid not. The Japanese government has strictly forbidden the usage of your portkeys to travel into and out of the country," Kaho said.

"Hoe? Why?" Sakura asked.

"Officially they are saying that portkeys aren't safe and they won't have any of their citizens subjected to the risks of teleportation," Kaho said.

"They won't? Are portkeys that dangerous?" Sakura asked, disappointment and concern creeping across her face.

"No, they're perfectly safe. Apparating on one's own can lead to some very serious injuries if one isn't careful, but portkeys have many of safety precautions built into them. There hasn't been a serious injury directly from using a portkey in over 100 years," Kaho said.

"But if there haven't been any injuries, why do they think they are so dangerous?" Sakura asked.

"They don't trust any magical devices. They think that given apparating is dangerous, any teleportation which uses a device must be even worse, seeing how the wizard or witch no longer has direct control over the magical power being used. They think all magic should come directly from a person. It's not just portkeys either; they don't like any of the magic that the West makes. Even if Japan is one of the most advanced Eastern country in terms of magical item development and use, it's still probably a few hundred years behind the United Kingdom," Kaho said.

"Is that why Eriol didn't want to register the portkeys?" Sakura asked.

"It could be. Even so it would have been dangerous to not register them. Regardless of if you used them, just having them could get you in big trouble if some authority in Japan or the United Kingdom caught you carrying an international portkey," Kaho said.

"What about all the other things I have then, like my wand?" Sakura asked.

"Your wand is fine. Like I said, while concern for the safety of the portkeys was the official reason they won't allow their use, it probably isn't the real reason. While the wizards and witches out in the East don't approve of Western magic, they usually don't have a problem with people who practice it. They just think it's a waste of time. I think the real reason they aren't allowing the portkeys is the international implications of the travel they enable. For example, a criminal could use them to escape the country, or worse, a country could use them to send an army for an invasion or something," Kaho said.

"Hoe," Sakura lamented. The disappointment on her face was entirely predictable to Kaho, who had just the thing to cheer her up. She had decided to talk about the portkeys first for just this reason.

"While I can't give you the portkeys, I can give you something else," Kaho said, pulling a wrapped box out from behind her back and handing it to Sakura.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, still frowning but taking the box.

"Why don't you open it and find out?" Kaho suggested.

Sakura needed no further prompting and ripped the wrapping off the box. The box contained an envelope and another smaller box. Sakura looked up at Kaho, who gave an encouraging smile and a nod. Sakura opened the envelope and pulled out a card. It read:

"Dear Sakura. I got your Valentine's Day chocolate. It was very good. I'm sorry I can't be with you today. I wish I were at Hogwarts with you. Please accept this present as a sign of my affection. Happy White Day. Love, Syaoran"

"It's from Syaoran," Sakura said. Her earlier disappointment instantly evaporated, forgotten in light of this new development. "How did he get it here?"

"He sent it to Eriol weeks ago to make sure it got here in time," Kaho explained. "Why don't you open the box?"

Sakura's heart was beating so quickly that it almost jumped through her throat, and her shaking hands made it difficult to hold the box straight, let alone open it. Nevertheless, she opened the smaller box as carefully as she could. Inside was a necklace. Nothing precious in its own right but beautiful nonetheless, all the more so for the difficult trip it had taken from Hong Kong to reach her. Sakura carefully pulled it out.

Kaho let Sakura admire how the beautiful necklace sparkled in the torchlight for a minute before gently prompting her, "You wanted to see me for something too?"

"I did?" Sakura asked, then remembered why she was there and said, "Yes, I did. I wrote some letters."

Sakura pulled the letters out from her pocket and handed them to Kaho.

"I'll make sure they're delivered," Kaho said.

"Thank you," Sakura said. Then, with her head still in the clouds, she walked out of the office.

Sakura kept absently fingering the necklace in front of her as she walked down the hallway and wasn't paying too much attention to her surroundings, and so made for an easy mark for Peeves who happened to be floating by. It was a simple task for a prankster as experienced as the poltergeist to swoop down, grab the necklace out of Sakura's hand, and fly with it into the air.

"Ha ha! Got your toy!" Peeves taunted.

"Give that back!" Sakura shouted, chasing after Peeves.

"You've got to catch me first," Peeves teased, flying backward and holding the necklace just out of Sakura's reach.

"I'm serious! You bring that back right now!" Sakura shouted.

Peeves came to the end of the hallway where it formed a T-intersection. He was tempted to just fly through the wall, hopefully causing Sakura to run face-first into the stone. However, the chances of tricking her like that were small, even if he had gotten a student to do it once before, and he hadn't teased her nearly enough to allow it to end it now if the wall gambit failed. Instead, Peeves just stopped and started dangling the necklace barely above Sakura's reach.

"Oops. Nice try. You almost had it there," Peeves said, raising the necklace whenever Sakura jumped to try and grab it.

Sakura was feeling an emotion she rarely felt. She frequently felt love or warmth, and occasionally felt worried or concerned. Almost never did she feel what could be considered anger. Stealing the precious necklace that Syaoran had gone to so much trouble to get to her on White Day was not enough on its own to make the normally happy and forgiving Sakura get mad. The taunting may have gone a good bit further towards that end, but even it wasn't enough to truly anger Sakura. That it was Peeves taunting Sakura, with his early history of terrifying her and more recent history of just generally annoying her, was what pushed her over the edge.

"You better give it back," Sakura said. Those who knew Sakura would have been shocked at the tone of voice she was using.

Peeves, who had long gotten used to hearing this tone from helpless students and the occasional professor completely disregarded the promised pain and continued to taunt, "Oh yeah? What if I don't then?"

The question ran through Sakura's head. If she had been thinking straight she might not have been able to answer it. With the cloud of emotion hanging over her head, though, she knew exactly what she was going to do.

Sakura pulled the Key out from under her robe and quickly chanted in Japanese, "Key which hides the powers of stars, show your true power before me. Under the contract, Sakura commands you. Release!"

The Key grew to its full size inside of Sakura's closed hand. Peeves was briefly concerned when Sakura started pulling out a magical item, but then the bright pink color of the Key did exactly what it was designed to do and masked the true power of the artifact from casual observation. Peeves disregarded the Key as a child's toy and continued his taunting of Sakura, holding the necklace as if it were some bait to be used in his attempts to fish for Sakura.

If Kaho had been around she might have been able to talk some sense into Sakura and keep her from using the cards in Hogwarts. If Keroberos had been around he might also have been able to dissuade Sakura by explaining the danger of using the cards out in the open.

However, neither Kaho nor Keroberos was present, and Sakura's vision was purely focused on Peeves. She would stop Peeves's torment and get back the gift that Syaoran had sent her.

Sakura reached into her robe pocket and blindly pulled the intended Sakura Card into her hand. She threw the card into the air, and chanted again in Japanese, "Dark, trap that evil poltergeist and hold him tight! Dark!"

Sakura slammed the Key through the air where it intersected with the boomeranging card. Both the Key and the card stopped in mid-air while the star on the head of the Key spun from the sheer force of magic flowing through it. Using such a high power card might have been considered too much in ordinary circumstances, but, in Sakura's opinion, this was far from ordinary circumstances.

Peeves looked down at his diminutive target in sudden worry. His dismissal of the vulnerable first year student quickly turned to fear as an inky blackness erupted from the end of the pink rod. It flew straight up towards him, engulfing him before he had a chance to react. He dropped the necklace he was holding in sheer surprise.

Sakura looked up in satisfaction as The Dark encapsulated Peeves in an orb of absolute darkness as if he was some rogue Clow Card. The sphere transcended a mere absence of light, transcended the color black, and almost seemed to transcended reality itself. It manifested itself like a two dimensional absence of content interposed onto a three dimensional world, as if somebody had taken a photograph and then pasted the blackest of papers over the section displaying Peeves.

Having experienced the same absence of everything herself, Sakura knew how scary being so absolutely alone and lost could be. Her satisfaction was slightly diminished when she heard from the center of the darkness Peeves calling out, "Hello? Anybody there? Professors! Help! Unauthorized magic!"

Sakura willed another card into her hand, threw it in the air, and chanted again in Japanese, "Silent, block this spirit and mute his voice! Silent!"

Sakura again channeled her magic through the Key, and, through it, the card. To Sakura's magical sight, she could see a feminine shape with a high-collared dark dress emerging from the card. The Silent then ran outward, encircling the darkness trapped Peeves. His cries abruptly ended as The Silent finished surrounding the hole of absent light floating in the air.

All around Peeves, he could only see pitch blackness. It was so dark he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face, and seeing how he literally glowed this classified as a very bad thing. He tried to move, but without being able to see and with walls not affecting him as such he had no idea if he was having any success. His cries for help had also ended, or at least he could no longer hear himself despite all his efforts to shout out, although it was hard to tell given his metaphysical state if he was doing it right without the feedback of sound to help him.

Without being able to touch anything, see anything, hear anything, Peeves was utterly lost. All he knew was that he completely and absolutely alone, and he didn't like that one bit. He tried to think of a way to get out of this predicament but drew a blank. He never thought for a moment that facing that little first year girl, who had run screaming from him for so long, would have resulted in this situation. He wasn't worried, though. Somebody was bound to find him eventually, and then they would certainly help him, wouldn't they?

Sakura looked above and watched the black absence of light slowly meander around. Her revenge complete, the haze of anger slowly melted away from her body.

She knelt down and picked up the necklace from where Peeves had dropped it on the ground. She quickly looked it over to see if the fall onto the hard stone had damaged it in any way, then breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming it was still in sound shape. Syaoran's gift being restored to her possession went a long way towards mollifying her.

It was only at this point that she noticed some movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw Lisa, Anthony, Wayne, and Gloria staring at her with a mixture of expressions on their faces, varying from Anthony's look of shock and possible fear to Lisa's look of admiration and wonder.

"Hoe?" Sakura asked surprised, than gave a tentative wave and said, "Hello."

It made for an almost comic scene, Sakura standing waving with a look of tentative nervousness on her face while a cloud of supernatural inky blackness drifted above her in a lazy circle.

Wayne was the first to speak, asking "What was that?"

"It's," Sakura struggled to think of something to say, "a toy. Yes, a toy."

"A toy?" Anthony asked. Then realizing something continued, "Wait a second, isn't that the same thing you used to make that cake on the train way back when?"

"I think so," Sakura said.

"I heard it was amazing but I had no idea. Brilliant toy. I'd love to be able to do that to Peeves, he drives me crazy," Wayne said, absently rubbing his nose and forehead.

Gloria and Lisa were listening carefully. They both were as curious as the boys were about this mysterious toy, maybe even more curious then the boys were, but dare not ask any questions themselves for fear of a giant fire-breathing lion eating them in their sleep. However, Wayne and Anthony were under no such limitations.

"Can I try it out?" Anthony asked, his hand reaching out for Sakura to hand the book and Key over.

"No, me first. I saw it first," Wayne said, his hand reaching out likewise.

"Ahh," Sakura said hesitantly.

"Come on, hand it over. Let us have a look. We're friends, aren't we?" Anthony asked.

"I'm not supposed to let others use it," Sakura said, clutching the book possessively and holding it close to her.

"Come on, just one time. It won't hurt anything. Who's going to know anyway?" Wayne asked.

"No, I really can't," Sakura said, shaking her whole body in rejection to the request.

"Aww, fine, stingy. Who'd want to play with your silly little toy anyway? It's all pink and girly," Anthony said, his face not quite agreeing with the sentiment he was saying.

"Where'd you get it from?" Wayne asked.

"Ahh, somewhere in Tokyo. I don't think you can get it here," Sakura said. It was literally true, even if misleading.

"What's it called? Can I get one?" Anthony asked, completely forgetting his dismissal just moments earlier.

"Ahh," Sakura stalled. She could tell it was going to be a long conversation and she was already regretting having used the cards like she had.

The five students walked down one of the corridor, with Anthony and Wayne taking turns asking Sakura questions in an attempt to find out more about the strange book and stranger pink cards it contained while Sakura did her best to avoid answering them and to end the interrogation.

Behind them Peeves, long forgotten by Sakura, continued to float in a befuddled lonely empty silent darkness.

* * *

Every Sunday, half of the Ravenclaw students would gather for a weekly trip through the halls of Hogwarts Castle. This wasn't so much an intentional gathering as much as a logistical necessity. Logistics dictated that if they wanted maximize their time in the library but still get to the Great Hall in time for lunch then they would all need to take approximately the same path and leave at approximately the same time. First one student would notice the time and get ready to leave, which would prompt three more to check the time, and, like an uncontrolled chain reaction, the library would suddenly be practically devoid of people.

Sakura was talking to Grey Lady about some great tournaments that Hogwarts had participated in in the past with these two other European schools when the wave of motion had swept past her and notified her of the time and more importantly of the pending meal. With a casualness borne of months of familiarity, Sakura and Grey Lady parted company, Sakura joining the exodus in the direction of food and Grey Lady searching around for any students who had decided to skip the meal in favor of staying in the library.

As Sakura left the library, the bottom fell out of her stomach. Right across of the hall stood Anthony. For a brief moment Sakura considered ducking back into the library, but before she could do so Anthony made eye contact with her. She was stuck having to talk to her friend.

Ordinarily she would have been thrilled to see Anthony, and indeed would likely have sought him out before leaving. That was before the events of the previous day, though. Sakura still felt burned out from the questioning she had received from him and Wayne and she really didn't want to deal with another question and answer session.

Sakura had been forced to endure several minutes of questioning by Anthony and Wayne after her encounter with Peeves. It had been tricky at times but Sakura had managed to end the interrogations without revealing anything too important. At least she thought she had managed to escape without revealing anything too important. Furthermore she had even managed to get them to agree to not spread rumors about the cards around either, although she wasn't sure how reliable their casually given agreements were.

The question and answer session could have lasted for hours except that Sakura had come up with an excuse that she had to meet with a professor and so was able to dodge away from the other four children. It was true that the professor had been Kaho, but it was equally true that Sakura had wanted to speak with her. As she had walked away, though, she had practically felt the eyes of Anthony and Wayne staring at her from behind her back as if trying to find some way to take the cards away from her. It had been bad enough when it had only been Lisa that Sakura had needed to keep an eye on. With the interest of the two boys and possibly Gloria as well, Sakura was starting to feel downright paranoid.

Her talk with Kaho had proved fruitless. Sakura had thoroughly expected to be scolded by Kaho for letting her emotions overrule her reason and carelessly being seen using the cards in such a flamboyant way. This scolding never came. Instead Kaho had lent an ear of sympathy to the distressed young girl. However, Kaho hadn't have any good ideas about what to do next either. Kaho could have had a talk with the children who had seen the cards being used, but that seemed very heavy-handed. Furthermore having an adult be visibly interested in the situation would likely cause more problems than it would solve. That was to say nothing of Peeves himself, too. If the poltergeist started talking about what he had gone through there was practically nothing anybody could do about it. In the end, Kaho's only advice had been to try and keep a low profile in the short-term and to be more careful with what she did in the future. Whatever else would happen would happen.

One minor consolation was that Lisa was practicing her charms together with Wayne today, so Anthony was the only person Sakura was inclined to worry about. Gloria still seemed as disinclined to have anything to do with the cards now as she had been when Keroberos had stared her down several months ago.

"Hey Sakura, there you are. I was wondering where you'd gone off to," Anthony said as Sakura left the library.

"Hello, Anthony," Sakura said back.

"Headed to lunch?" Anthony asked.

"Yes. You too?" Sakura asked.

"Yes," Anthony answered.

With their destination established, the pair walked towards the midday meal. While they were surrounded by several other Ravenclaw students who were sharing in the genial conversations of friendship, Sakura and Anthony themselves remained silent.

They were getting near to the Great Hall when Anthony finally turned to Sakura and said, "Say, I..."

That was all he got out before being interrupted by a scream from the front of the crowd.

"Come on. Just one kiss. See? He likes you," Peeves said.

"Eww, no way. Take it away," Su said from the front of the crowd, cutting through the conversations of everybody present.

Sakura and Anthony looked up, to see the familiar sight of Peeves hovering just ahead. He was holding something out to somebody.

"Get lost, Peeves," Thomas said.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked Anthony. Despite being relatively close to the front, Sakura's short height meant that she couldn't make out what was going on very well.

"It's hard to see, but I think Peeves is holding a toad at Su's face," Anthony said.

"And deprive Mr. Toady here? He only wants one measly kiss. If you kiss him, he might even change into," Peeves said before noticing Sakura talking with Anthony and shouting out, "Ahhh!"

The sight of Sakura brought back memories of the hours of terrifying boredom he had spent just the day before. Abruptly he turned around and flew off as quickly as he could, calling out behind him, "Well alright then. I'll just have to find another princess for Mr. Toady then. The Hufflepuff girls are prettier than you anyway, Su."

The gathered crowd of Ravenclaw students stood in nonplused silence for a few seconds. Eventually, Paul asked, "What just happened?"

"I don't know, but I want to find out. Peeves is never that easy to get rid of," Jeremy said.

"Yeah, what'd you do, Thomas?" Penelope asked.

"I don't know. I just told him to leave," Thomas said hesitantly.

"Are you sure that's it? You're not holding out on us or anything, are you?" Richard asked.

"How could I? You saw everything didn't you? I didn't do anything special, I think. How about you Su? Did you do anything weird?" Thomas asked, curiosity for a way to banish Peeves overriding his concern for how the first year student was doing.

"No idea, I'm just glad he's gone," Su said.

Slowly the group of Ravenclaw students continued on their way to the Great Hall, although everybody present resolved to figure out what exactly had happened. A way to drive off Peeves was worth its weight in gold, no matter what it was.

After the group was thoroughly on its way again, Anthony turned to Sakura and said in a low voice, "You know, sorry about yesterday. We've seen enough stuff in the inn that you'd think I'd have learned to mind my own business. If you want to keep that book of yours a secret that's your business. I won't go prying or spreading it around or anything."

Sakura was taken aback at this sudden assertion, but said, "Thank you."

"Still, seeing what just happened, I'm not sure how much longer it's going to be a secret for, what with Peeves acting that way. It won't take too long for people to put two and two together and figure out something's going on. That's assuming Peeves doesn't outright tell somebody himself," Anthony said.

"Do you really think he might?" Sakura asked, her concern from yesterday rearing its head again.

"I don't know. He seemed pretty scared a minute ago so maybe he won't. It's hard to say with Peeves," Anthony said.

"I hope he doesn't," Sakura said.

Despite the short interruption Peeves had caused, the group of students still managed to reach the Great Hall in time to take their seats before lunch began. In fact, they had arrived early enough that there was even time for Gloria, who arrived at a fast jog on her own after them, to join the pair as well.

"Whew, I thought I was going to be late. I really hate Professor Snape," Gloria said as she took a seat.

"Professor Snape? What did he do this time?" Anthony asked while Sakura made her customary preparations to eat.

"Oh, he accused me of cheating and getting unfair help. He made me go and remake a forgetfulness potion this morning. I swear that man is evil," Gloria said.

"Professor Snape did that? That doesn't sound like something he'd do," Sakura said as she loaded her plate with the various edible items that the house elves had laid out on the table between the students.

"As if he'd do anything to his favorite student," Anthony said, and then took a large bite out of a piece of bread.

"That's not it at all. Professor Snape is a nice person. He wouldn't do something like that," Sakura insisted.

"What's with you, Sakura? Every time Professor Snape does something you always defend him. I'm sorry, but making me spend a Sunday morning making potions just because I used some of Ron's ground aloe is not the actions of a 'nice person,'" Gloria said. She angrily stabbed her fork into her salad as she spoke.

"Ground aloe? What did you use ground aloe for?" Sakura asked, and then continued eating her salad in a much less violent way.

"Oh, you know, ground aloe? The fifth step of the forgetfulness potions. Grind some aloe, and then using your thumb and ring finger add two pinches to the cauldron," Gloria said.

"I don't remember that being part of making a forgetfulness potion," Sakura said.

"Are you saying that you forgot about the aloe?" Anthony asked.

"No. I just put dropped some aloe leaves into the cauldron," Sakura said.

"What? Whole aloe leaves? Why'd you do that?" Gloria asked.

"The instructions said to add some aloe so I did it, but after a minute it started to feel weird so I fished them out," Sakura said.

"And Professor Snape didn't yell at you or anything?" Gloria asked, shock clearly visible on her face.

"No," Sakura said.

"Maybe he didn't see you," Gloria said.

"I doubt that. Professor Snape watches Sakura the most carefully of all of us in class, especially when we're mixing potions. He never yells at her, though," Anthony said, exaggerating the truth but only slightly.

"Great. He makes me waste all Sunday morning and almost miss lunch for borrowing some of Ron's aloe, but you just drop some whole leaves into the cauldron and he's perfectly fine that," Gloria muttered bitterly, stabbing her salad with her fork one last time.

"Are you sure you didn't grind up your aloe? When we tested the potions at the end of class, yours was the strongest one, wasn't it Sakura?" Anthony asked.

"Yes I'm sure. I just threw some whole leaves into the cauldron, and then pulled them out after a minute or two," Sakura said.

"Weird. I don't know what you did, but you're lucky, Sakura. Neville in our class messed up his potion and it somehow turned his hair green," Gloria said.

"I'll tell you what, though. I could use some of that luck myself. It took me four tries to get my forgetfulness potion to come out right," Anthony said.

"Oh, what are you both planning after lunch?" Gloria asked, changing the subject.

"I'm going to go revise for that Herbology test coming up," Anthony said.

"I knew it. You Ravenclaws are always studying. I'll bet Lisa is off somewhere studying too," Gloria said.

"It's better than you Gryffindors, always flitting away all your time. Don't come complaining to me when you fail your Herbology finals," Anthony responded.

"Finals are still months away, and for your information we aren't just flitting away all of our time; we're out experiencing life. It's better than having your nose in a book all day. Life should be lived, not just read about," Gloria said.

"What are your plans for the day?" Sakura asked Gloria.

"Oh, I'm going to go practice my broom flying. It's only six months until next year's Quidditch tryouts, and there are still a few good hours of daylight left in the day today," Gloria said.

"But you were just saying that there's plenty of time before final, and they're a lot closer than next year's Quidditch tryouts," Anthony pointed out.

"That's different," Gloria answered back quickly.

"It's really cold outside too. Won't that make practice difficult?" Sakura asked. The Great Hall was warm enough, but the corridors of the hallways were still chilly even without the wind whipping outside the thick stone walls.

"It's not that cold in the sunlight. I'll just bundle up a bit more. Besides, if I get good now, when the weather turns nicer I'll be that much better," Gloria said.

"You're crazy," Anthony said, shaking his head.

"How are you going to practice? I thought you needed supervision to ride a broom," Sakura said.

"Oh, the Slytherin Quidditch team has the pitch reserved for practice, and my brother promised to let me sneak in," Gloria said.

"How are you going to do that? You'll stick out like a sore thumb with your Gryffindor colors everywhere," Anthony said.

"I thought of that too. I'm going to borrow one of his cloaks and scarves as a disguise," Gloria said proudly. "How about you Sakura, do you want join me? I can probably find another set for you if you want to come along."

"No thanks. I'm going to go double check that forgetfulness potion formula. I want to figure out what happened with my potion," Sakura said.

Sakura had no inclination to spend any more time on an uncomfortable and potentially explosive broom than she needed to, and being able to avoid the cold March day only made the decision that much easier. Besides that, what Gloria and Anthony told her about the forgetfulness potion formula really did worry her, and she wanted to figure out what exactly had happened with her potion earlier.

* * *

Last Updated: February 5, 2013


	11. 11: Sakura's Stressful Examination Day

Chapter 11: Sakura's Stressful Examination Day

The school year was drawing to an end.

The seventh year students had begun to realize a month ago that this would likely be the last time they would all be together. Ever. While they would still occasionally see each other from time to time after graduation, they would never again share the same life with all of its triumphs and tragedies as they did now. This knowledge tinged everything they said and did with a subtle undertone of sadness.

One such tragedy was the last game of Quidditch for the year. The season had drawn to a close well in time to give the older students plenty of time to study for their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. The final game in Hogwarts had been in late May, an unexciting match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

Ever since Harry Potter had been selected as the Seeker for Gryffindor, any match which didn't include Gryffindor's legendary player had lost some of its luster, and some recent unexplained injuries had left Harry Potter in the hospital and the Gryffindor team with a reserve Seeker.

Despite all of this, the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match was one of the best attended games in the year, if only because it was the last game of the year. It proved to be just as disappointing as was feared. Ravenclaw easily held control of the Quaffle and dominated the Gryffindor Beaters and Keeper, while Gryffindor's substitute Seeker could do nothing to stop them. Several times the Ravenclaw Seeker arguably could have caught the Snitch, but instead let the game go on and on, giving the Ravenclaw Chasers the chance to rack up point after point. The end result was the worst beating Ravenclaw had given Gryffindor in 300 years. The seventh year students commiserated with each other about the anti-climactic ending to their tenure of Hogwarts Quidditch games.

The last game of Quidditch ending had the extra effect of at least psychologically finalizing the results of the house cup competition as well. It had been a close run for a while between Gryffindor and Slytherin, but mysteriously, a few days ago, Gryffindor had lost 150 points. Nobody knew why. The Ravenclaws students had asked their friends in Gryffindor what had happened, but officially nobody was saying anything. Unofficially, though, some of the sharper ears could hear definite mutters of "The Boy" which weren't quite whispered.

This left Slytherin decidedly in the lead, followed by Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and finally Gryffindor. The upperclassmen in Ravenclaw were saying there was still time to catch up, but in practice it just wasn't possible. A 50 point leap in relative standings with the precious few weeks left before term ended was almost unheard of. This was part of the reason everybody was so curious about what had happened to Gryffindor.

The house cup standings left many of the upperclassmen in each of the non-leading houses grossly disappointed. Whether this was because each student wanted to finally have a win to credit to their house in their scholastic career, or because they truly wanted "anybody but Slytherin" as they claimed, the first year students couldn't tell. Regardless, at least two Ravenclaw seventh year students were openly blaming Professor Snape's bias for Slytherin for their string of victories; openly blaming Professor Snape behind closed doors, of course. Even if that were the case, there was nothing any student could do about it, and the graduating non-Slytherins were forced to console each other over yet another Slytherin victory, it being just another disappointment in a string of disappointments at the end of classes.

Much more consequential to the students' daily lives was the upcoming end-of-year examinations. Within Ravenclaw, how the students received and treated these upcoming trials depended very much on which year the student was in. The sixth and seventh year students were very worried about the upcoming N.E.W.T.s, which would have a preeminent role in defining their post-Hogwarts lives. The fourth and fifth year students in turn were equally worried about the upcoming O.W.L.s, which would have an equally significant role in defining their last two years in Hogwarts. All four years worth of students seemed to spend every spare moment they could studying for their respective tests.

This preoccupation with studying did not extend to the second and third year students, though. With their O.W.L.s still multiple years away they had plenty of time to take it easily. Instead, what preoccupied most of them was the recent behavior of Peeves. For the most part he continued to act as rambunctiously as he ever had, much to the consternation of the entire student body, but every so often, for no apparent reason, Peeves would suddenly break off and leave. While he would occasionally give out a shout before flying away, in general he had become much less ostentatious and obvious than the first time he had exhibited this behavior back in March. Sometimes he would just emerge from the wall a long way down the hallway, make eye-contact with a group of students, and then abruptly turn around and fly back into the wall. While his newly found strange behavior made for an unexpected and welcome break from his usual antics, none of the second or third year Ravenclaw students had any idea what caused him to act this way. The only clue they had for the cause of this behavior was that based on conversation with friends in other houses; none of the non-Ravenclaw students seemed to ever observe him acting this way. Each of the second and third year Ravenclaws students was eager to crack the secret, not only to finally have a tool with which to drive away the annoying poltergeist but to receive the adulation from the entire student body at having discovered the tool as well. However, thus far, nobody who didn't already know had managed to draw the connection to Sakura.

As the first year students were even farther away from the all important O.W.L.s than their slightly older upperclassmen, it might have been expected that they would be even more relaxed than the second and third year students. However, if anything, they were even more nervous than the seventh year graduating class was. In contrast to the seventh year students, who were worried by what they knew, that being the N.E.W.T.s would have a major impact on the rest of their lives, the first years were more worried about what they didn't know. They had no idea what the upcoming end-of-year examinations would entail and had no reliable source of information from which to find out. Whenever they tried to get an answer from an older student, they would alternatively hear that the tests were impossible to fail and absolutely nothing to worry about, or that they were harrowing death-defying terrors and they should be very afraid.

The young first year Ravenclaws instead had to resort to talking to each other for information about the upcoming final examinations, looking especially to those classmates who had older siblings. They were no help either. All Terry knew about them was what he overheard from what his parents had managed to get out of his sister, which was that the exams were "fiiiiiinnneee." Linda's older brother, in contrast, had said that the examinations were truly terrifying and each year half of the class was expelled for having failed them all. Simple math showed that this just wasn't possible, but Linda remained terrified.

Sakura was nervous for the examinations as well, but for an entirely different reason. There were strict rules in place about what the students could, and more importantly could not, bring to the tests. Books, in particular a certain bright pink book, fell strictly into the latter. She would be forced to leave all of the Sakura Cards behind in her dorm room. There had been no indication of a card going rampant since that incident in November, but she was still nervous.

Moreover, for the past few months, she had even caught her friends' wandering eyes looking at the pocket in which she kept all of the Sakura Cards. Nobody had actually brought the subject up since the incident in March, but Sakura could tell that their interest in the cards hadn't just gone away. Between that and the risk of a card going rampant, Sakura felt very uncomfortable that she had to leave the cards behind, even if Keroberos was carefully watching over them back in the dorm room.

With all of this going through her head, it was understandable how nervous Sakura was, standing around in the field waiting for the test for Flying class to begin. However, Terry, Wayne, Anthony, Hannah, Lisa, and everyone else was themself too anxious to notice another student's anxiety.

Madam Hooch had ended up writing off this year's Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first year students. They were so nervous around their brooms that she doubted any of them would amount to anything special in terms of flying, not that that was her problem. Her task was only to ensure that they were minimally competent in the air, and despite all the hardships throughout the year, they were. Idly she wondered what their lack of talent would do to the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Quidditch team in the years to come, but that was also not her problem.

The final examination for Flying class proved to be much easier than the children had feared. A simple obstacle course had been set up in the air and the students were expected to fly from point to point, passing through some large hoops as they went. There was no time limit so all of the students were able to easily pass, even if it had taken Susan two tries to get through one of the hoops.

Sakura's History of Magic examination went much less well. She found herself getting confused between all the strange English names presented. She gave it her best shot, vaguely recalling the bits and pieces about automatic cauldrons that came to her mind. In all honesty she couldn't say for certain how much of what she wrote was true and how much was made up in her imagination. Looking around showed most of the other students were doing equally poorly, if the multiple head-scratches and frequent reflexive yawns were anything to go by.

Her attempts at concentration were made no easier by Professor Binns, who was floating through the rows of students in search of cheaters. Most teachers would have settled for walking up and down the aisles, instead of literally floating through the rows of students. It was a mark of how much Sakura had truly learned in class that she was only a mildly annoyed when Professor Binns floated through her back and emerged in front of her face, momentarily blocking her view.

Sakura didn't have very much time to brood over how poorly she had done on the official History of Magic test. Directly after it was the Transfiguration class's final exam. That actually helped distract her after her horrible performance in the History of Magic class test. As Sakura was the strongest student in her class for this subject, she was actually rather confident for this test.

At least Sakura had been confident up until Professor McGonagall announced that for their final exam they would be transforming a mouse into a snuffbox. One at a time. In front of the whole class.

Sakura was immediately struck by a bout of nerves. She couldn't be considered a cowardly girl by any stretch, especially now that her phobia of ghosts had finally been conquered, but she was never comfortable in front of a crowd. Things were not made any easier by the performance of the students who went before her. Terry, Linda, and Anthony all had problems transforming the mouse. Terry had done the best of the three, forming a shape vaguely rectangular and hard, but his would-be snuffbox had a decidedly gray color and a distinct pair of whiskers in the front of it.

Throughout the attempts of transfiguration the mouse was remarkably calm, despite it being repeatedly transformed into an inanimate object. This suited Sakura just fine. She couldn't imagine having to deal with a panicked and squirming rodent while simultaneously trying to transfigure it.

Finally it was Sakura's turn. She walked up to the mouse-laden desk with much less confidence than she had had an hour before. Still, she didn't have any choice in the matter. She drew her wand, took a deep breath, and tried her best to weave the magic emitting from the tip of her wand in the appropriate patterns.

After a dreadful pause where absolutely nothing happened, the mouse quickly transformed into an ornate snuffbox, speckled with semi-precious jewels. Professor McGonagall picked the box up, turned it around in her hand, opened it up, and then put it back down on the table.

"Well done Sakura. Next," Professor McGonnagal said, dismissing Sakura and waving her wand to turn the box back into the hapless mouse it truly was.

Sakura walked back to the small crowd of Ravenclaw students feeling immensely relieved as well as proud of her accomplishment. She was the first person in the class who had been clearly successful in her transfiguration, and she both basked in and was embarrassed by the looks of admiration she received from her classmates.

Whether it was because Sakura had finally proved that it could be done, because the mouse had finally become accustomed to being turned into a snuffbox and no longer resist the transfiguration, or just a coincidence, the students after Sakura had much more luck with their transfigurations. Deborah, who had never been very good in transfiguration, successfully transformed the mouse into a very plain snuffbox. Lisa did quite well as well, forming a very passable snuffbox with colorful decorations painted on its side.

After the Transfiguration test was the Potions examination. Sakura was on a confidence-high, having done the best in the class's opinion in the Transfiguration exam and being very proficient in Potions class as well.

In a twist of irony, the final exam for Potions was to remember how to craft a forgetfulness potion. Sakura had an easy time doing so, as did most of the class. The only person who seemed to have any problems with Deborah, and even her potion proved usable by the end of the test.

With Potions out of the way, Sakura and the rest of the class headed to the Charms room. By this point, between all the writing, wanding, and worrying, Sakura had completely forgotten about the Sakura Cards and was instead spending all of her energy trying to pass the various tests. The Charms examination was especially intimidating to Sakura. While she could consistently cast most of the charms she had been taught, she had never quite managed to put all the pieces together into a comprehensive whole which made sense to her. Instead she had to watch herself every time she wielded a wand, and she had grown to rather dislike the very by-the-book nature of the class, with its massive amount of rout memorization and repeated meaningless gestures she had to practice over and over.

She was so caught up in mentally reviewing what she knew in preparation for the upcoming test that the last thing Sakura was expecting was for Keroberos to fly down the hallway yelling, "Sakura!"

That was exactly what he did.

It took Keroberos two more shouts and getting several yards closer for Sakura to realize that the voice calling out was calling out for her.

The whole class had stopped walking and turned to look at the voice. They saw the yellow plushie that all of them had gotten accustomed to seeing floating around Ravenclaw Tower flying towards them as fast as he could. His progress was hampered considerably by the book he was carrying, which was both bigger and heavier than he was. About half of the students, most of them girls, recognized the pink book with the large font "SAKURA" written on the cover.

"Kero-chan? What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"One of the cards has gone missing again," Keroberos said, in Japanese to give a modicum of privacy.

"What?" Sakura asked back in Japanese. "What happened?"

"I just turned my back for a second, and when I turned around and the book was open and there was somebody running away. I tried to chase after the culprit but wasn't fast enough," Keroberos said, worry and shame fighting for dominance in his tone of voice. "Sorry."

"Are you sure that person took a card?" Sakura asked, taking the book from Keroberos. Even as she asked she could feel the absence from the book. Still hoping beyond hope that she had made a mistake she rapidly flipped through the cards to verify.

"Yes, I counted them myself. The person took..." Keroberos started.

"The Song!" Sakura finished for him.

"We need to find it," Keroberos said.

"What about the examinations?" Sakura asked.

"If somebody stole The Song we need to get it back. There's no telling what they might do with it," Keroberos insisted.

Sakura found herself agreeing with Keroberos's judgment as well. The Song was generally kind and harmless in nature, but its naivety did result in it acting inappropriately at times, and in this castle full of magic that could be dangerous. This danger was compounded if somebody had actually stolen The Song as they would almost certainly do something bad, either to it or with it. Even worse, if it somehow ended up going berserk like The Jump had earlier then there was no telling what might happen.

There was really no choice at all.

"Let's go Kero-chan. Which way did the person go?" Sakura asked.

"This way," Keroberos said flying off, Sakura in hot pursuit.

"Wait! Sakura! Where are you going?" Lisa called after the pair in English.

"Sorry. Ahh... Ahh... The loo!" Sakura shouted back in English, and continued to run.

Lisa shared a glance with Anthony and then both ran after the girl. Something was going on here and neither wanted to leave Sakura alone if there was trouble. They had seen what that book could do against Peeves earlier, and if Keroberos had come bringing it then something big was going on.

"Wait! Where are you two going?" Paul called after the pair as they ran off.

"We're going to the loo as well!" Anthony called behind him without stopping.

"What about the exams?" Deborah asked.

"Tell Professor Flitwick we are not feeling well!" Lisa shouted from down the hallway.

The pair disappeared down the hallway in hot pursuit of the already out-of-sight Sakura and Keroberos, leaving the remainder of the Ravenclaw students looking after them in confusion as they ran off.

"Now what do we do?" Linda asked to nobody in particular.

* * *

"This way," Keroberos urged Sakura on, turning a corner.

"No, it's this way," Sakura contradicted, pointing a different direction.

"Are you sure?" Keroberos asked.

Keroberos was positive that the person who had stolen The Song had run much further down the hallway. However, The Song was aligned with Yue rather than himself which meant his connection to it was much more tenuous than his connection to cards like The Firey. Sakura, as the mistress of all of the Sakura Cards, had no such limitation and was intimately connected to each of them.

"Yes, I'm sure," Sakura said.

"Wait up!" Anthony called out from behind them.

Sakura and Keroberos turned around to see Lisa and Anthony running down the hall after them. When they had finally caught up, both of them were breathing hard and on the verge of panting.

After waiting a few moments to catch his breath, Anthony asked, "What happened? Why did you run off?"

Sakura shared a glance with Keroberos before turning back to the pair and answering "Something happened, and I need to fix it."

"You mean like last time?" Lisa asked, breathing hard as well.

"Last time?" Anthony asked.

"Yes," Sakura said.

"You will not be jumping out a window again, will you?" Lisa asked.

"Jumping out of a window?" Anthony asked, concern written on his face.

"I don't think so," Sakura said hesitantly.

"Sakura," Keroberos insisted, already halfway down the hallway Sakura had indicated earlier.

"Sorry. Got to go," Sakura said, and then turned and ran down the hall after Keroberos.

"Oh no you don't. You're not leaving us behind," Anthony said, chasing after Sakura.

"Wait for us," Lisa agreed, following after Sakura as well.

Sakura and Keroberos ran down the hall, chasing the fleeting but distinctive feeling of The Song. As Sakura had the strongest sense of where the card was she took the lead, despite Keroberos being the one who had seen it last. Behind the pair ran Lisa and Anthony, both in a state which made it obvious that Sakura was the most athletic student among the first year Ravenclaws.

Partly to conserve her energy and partly in sympathetic consideration, Sakura slowed her run to that of a fast jog so she wouldn't leave both of her friends behind.

"Where are we going?" Anthony asked to Lisa from a few yards behind Sakura.

"I do not know," Lisa said.

In fact nobody knew where they were going. The group was forced to take a winding path through the castle. Sakura knew which direction The Song was in, but not where all the walls and stairs were. They frequently had to double back when Sakura's feelings led them into a dead end.

"We're getting close," Sakura said, more for the benefit of her tag-along followers than Keroberos.

"I think so. I'm felling something too," Keroberos confirmed.

"Isn't that where all the greenhouses are?" Anthony asked.

"I think sOOO! Ooph," Lisa answered.

They had turned a corner, and Lisa had had to flail wildly to avoid running headlong into the suddenly stopped Sakura. Another moment longer and she would have collided with the girl. As it was, she only ended up falling backwards onto the ground.

"What? Why did you suddenly..." Lisa said as she stood up, before trailing off as she saw what had caused Sakura to abruptly stop in front of her. On the ground, several yards in front of the now lion-sized Keroberos, was a body laying face down on the ground, unmoving. It looked like a student, based on the body's size and the robe it wore.

"Who is that?" Lisa asked.

"I don't know," Anthony answered.

"I think that's the person who took the card," Keroberos said.

Sakura cautiously crept forward towards the fallen body, watched from behind by Anthony and Lisa. She kept careful guard as she approached, ready to jump away in case this was a trick or a trap. The body didn't move at all as she approached. She gently turned the body over so it was lying on its back.

With the face now exposed, it was easy to tell who it was.

"Wayne?" Lisa asked, rushing forward to his side.

A second later Anthony joined her, asking, "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know," Sakura said.

"What should we do?" Lisa asked.

"We should go get Madam Pomfrey, or a professor," Anthony said.

The Song was close. Sakura could feel it. Despite this, she stayed kneeling next to Wayne and patted his cheek, saying "Wake up, Wayne. Are you okay? Wake up."

Wayne gave a groan and shifted his head from side to side. Lethargically he swung his hand up, trying to brush away the annoyance. Slowly he opened his eyes, wincing and holding his head with his hand.

"Thank goodness," Lisa said from his side. "Are you alright?"

Wayne gave no response to the question.

"Oi, are you alright?" Anthony asked in a louder voice.

Wayne still gave no response.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked, looking down at him in concern.

"What?" came Wayne's weak answer.

"I asked if you were okay," Sakura said in a slightly louder voice.

"I can't..." Wayne said slowly in a voice not much louder than a whisper, "...hear you. Can you... speak up?"

"I asked if you are alright," Sakura repeated, louder again.

"That isn't... very funny," Wayne said.

"What?" Sakura asked. She turned to Keroberos who shook his head in answer to her question.

"No really, what is it?" Wayne asked, somewhat more gathered now.

"Can you hear us?" Anthony asked. Wayne gave no response.

"I think he's deaf," Keroberos suggested.

"Deaf? What's that?" Sakura asked.

"It means he cannot hear things," Lisa said, pointing to her ears.

"That's not funny at... all?" Wayne said, pausing at the end.

"All?" Wayne tried again. He then clapped his hands together as loudly as he could, which wasn't very loudly at all.

"I can't hear anything. What's wrong with me," Wayne asked, his weakness preventing his panicking from getting too out of hand.

"What happened?" Sakura asked. She then repeated herself slower and in front of Wayne's head while over-enunciating each word, "What happened?"

"I've no idea what you said," Wayne said in despair.

"If he..." Keroberos started saying, before being interrupted by a soul rending cry in the distance.

"What was that?" Lisa asked.

"Was that The Song?" Keroberos asked.

"We have to do something. Somebody's bound to come and check on that," Sakura said, more to Keroberos than to the three humans present.

"We should get a professor. They will know what to do," Lisa said in response.

"We can't do that," Keroberos said.

"Why not?" Anthony asked.

"Because we can't," Keroberos answered.

Anthony thought better than getting into an argument with a magical lion several times bigger than him, whereas Lisa, still remembering the fireball from months ago, had no inclination to press the issue further either.

"So what should we do then?" Lisa asked.

"We need to handle this ourselves," Sakura said. She gathered her courage then declared, "I'm going. Wayne looks like he should be fine for a while and we can take care of him after we're done."

"Let's go," Keroberos agreed.

"Do you two still want to come?" Sakura asked.

Another horrendous wail came from down the hallway, counterpointing Sakura's simple question.

Not waiting for an answer, Sakura hurried down the hallway, following both the direction of the cry as well as the source of her feelings. She was followed by Keroberos, who in turn was followed by the two human students. Her feelings eventually led her towards the end of the hall, past several doors, and eventually to a large door labeled "Greenhouse Three". Keroberos came to a stop just behind her, followed by Anthony and Lisa. All three took up positions along Sakura's flanks.

Pre-fight jitters bounced around uncontrollably inside of Sakura's stomach. It wasn't as bad as before her fight with The Nothing, or the final confrontation she had had with Eriol for that matter, but that was scant comfort for her current trepidation. She looked at Keroberos, who appeared as unflappable as ever. If he had any anxiety his demeanor betrayed none of it. Little did she realize that she likewise was presenting a confident stoic facade despite her inner nervousness.

In contrast to the seasoned pair, Lisa and Anthony were visibly shaking with worry, jumping in fear with each shriek.

"Greenhouse Three. Is this not where they keep all those dangerous plants?" Lisa asked.

"I think so," Anthony agreed. "Are you sure we can't just find some professors and let them deal with this?"

"Yes. We can't involve anybody else," Sakura said.

"Okay. Still, I wouldn't mind half as much except for that noise," Anthony said. He had done well, barely managing to keep his voice firm.

Sakura agreed with him. The cries were horrendous, both in pitch and intensity. It was near enough to human to tug at the primordial instincts of fear within her, but not similar enough to wholly match her expectations. The mismatch was jarring to say the least, terrifying to say more, and that didn't even take into consideration the sheer volume of the cries. Even from behind the closed doors they were painful in intensity.

"You could simply cover your ears," Lisa said, following her own advice.

"That won't work very well in there. It's not like you can protect yourself without using your hands," Keroberos observed. "It's not too late to leave if you want to."

"But it's a good idea," Sakura said. "We just can't use our hands, right?"

"What do you mean?" Anthony asked.

"Is there anything we can use to cover our ears?" Sakura asked.

"That is a good idea," Lisa said.

"I don't think I have anything," Anthony said, patting around his pockets.

"Why don't you try using your robes?" Keroberos suggested.

"Will it work?" Sakura asked as she took off her robe and tied it around her head like a makeshift turban. However it was too bulky for her to get a good handle on. Between the sleeves, the hood, and the overall bulk of the cloth it was difficult to properly set around her head. It kept sliding around and falling off, leaving Sakura with her hair sticking up like she had just been struck by lightning. Once she was able to get it to stay in one place it barely had any effect on the sound, doing a better job of blinding her than anything else.

"This isn't working," Sakura said.

"I can't get it to stay either," Anthony said.

"Is there anything else we could use?" Lisa asked.

"Why don't you use The Silent?" Keroberos suggested.

"The Silent? What's that?" Lisa asked.

"Good idea," Sakura said. She pulled the Key from around her neck and expanded it to its larger size. She then reached into the book containing the remaining the Sakura Cards and pulled out the appropriate card.

Sakura threw the card into the air, twirling her rod around as she chanted in Japanese, "Silent, form a barrier and block all sound. Silent!"

The Key struck true as it always did, spinning from the magical energy being forced through it. To Sakura's eyes, the feminine figure of The Silent grew out of the card and started running around the four of them. Faster and faster it ran, until it became a translucent blur, eventually completely fading from view.

In response to Sakura's action, Lisa asked, "Is that not ..."

Anthony put his hand to his ear and asked back, "..."

"..." Lisa tried again, and then said, "..."

Anthony cupped his hands in front of his mouth and shouted, "..."

All of them were interrupted by another rending shriek from the greenhouse. It was distinctly audible, but only as a harsh whisper in a library rather than as the scream of terrible despair from before. It was still enough to send chills down their spines, but it only spooked them rather than making them want to plug their ears and move into a fetal position under a safe blanket in bed.

With both Anthony and Lisa looking in her general direction, Sakura waved the bright pink Key to get their attention then pointed towards the door. The two students and Keroberos nodded back to her.

Sakura took the lead and opened the large door. She had half expected to be blown off her feet by a miasma of evil, but nothing like that happened. The door simply slid silently open with all of the effort but none of the sounds it usually gave. The blast of hot air which greeted Sakura made for a distinctive counterpoint to the chill of the stone castle.

Sakura clutched the Key close to her chest, nervously looked around, and slowly walked into the room. Behind her, Keroberos followed, keeping a watchful eye for The Song and betraying no sign of his very present nerves that any of the humans could detect. Lisa and Anthony crept in behind the two. The door silently shut behind the four.

Greenhouse Three superficially looked normal. Green foliage surrounded them like a mini-jungle, making for an appropriate location for a showdown of sorts. Closer inspection told a very different tale, though. Despite the short exposure, the plants around them were showing distinct signs of stress from the magical wailing they were being exposed to. At least Sakura assumed that the drooping leaves riddled with brown spots and small holes were a sign that something was wrong. With magical plants it was hard to tell at times.

Her observations were abruptly interrupted less than a dozen steps into Greenhouse Three by another shriek, this time from the air above them. They looked up just in time to see an unidentifiable dark blob give a horrendous cry and dive straight at the four of them.

Keroberos wasted no time in shooting a fireball directly at the dark figure, which swerved with amazing aerial agility and avoided the shot. Keroberos shot another fireball at the figure, now flying in a circular path around the four on the ground, almost managing to wing it. At the last possible moment it swerved again, and the fireball flew harmlessly above the figure.

Sakura jumped and ran to grab Keroberos, interrupting his third shot. He turned to Sakura, his mouth moving without generating sound. It didn't need to as Sakura understood and shook her head at him. He turned back to the floating figure in the air.

The Song just hovered in mid air, allowing the first good look at it. Unlike the brightly cheerful character from before, it had taken on a far darker and more sinister appearance. It was draped with large swaths of torn dark cloth, looking like a tattered monk's robe ripped almost beyond recognition. Its skin had taken on a gray pallor, and its hair was frizzy and wildly erratic. The frazzled dirty black locks of hair were only made more jarring from the large swaths of harsh gray which were streaked around it.

Sakura's observations were interrupted as The Song rose a few feet and gave another ear piercing shriek, only barely made tolerable by the bubble of silence Sakura had created earlier. It then dived straight at them.

Keroberos raised his head and made to prepare another fireball. Sakura noticed his actions and would have none of it. She reached up and grabbed his head, to the shock of both Anthony and Lisa, interrupting him a second time. He turned to look at Sakura, his mouth moving with no apparent effect.

Any semblance of communication from him to her despite the inability to talk was brutally interrupted when the two of them fell to the ground, forced down in an attempt to avoid the swooping of The Song. They were followed immediately after by Anthony and Lisa, who likewise threw themselves to the ground from the attack.

The Song flew back into the air, giving another cry as it did so. Sakura, Anthony, and Lisa scrambled to their feet as Keroberos pushed himself back onto all fours. There was no reprieve as The Song turned in the air and flew straight back at them like an insane enormous boomerang.

The four quickly scattered from the dive attack. Keroberos and Sakura running to the right while Anthony and Lisa ran to the left, both pairs following the clear paths of stone threading through the foliage around them.

Sakura looked over her shoulder as she ran to identify where The Song went and saw that it had swerved to chase after her and Keroberos. She gave out a silent lamentation and redoubled her efforts to get away.

The Song gave another shriek, which was enough of a warning for Sakura to duck her head and dodge to the right, almost crashing into a couple of mandrake plants. The plants made several silent rude gestures at Sakura for her almost collision while The Song passed through the area she had been moments before and flew ahead in front of her.

Seeing her opportunity, Sakura reached into her robe for her book. She willed The Windy into her hand and pulled it out in front of her. Once it was in her hand she hesitated, worried how she would call upon the card in the silent world she had created. Her decision was forced when The Song reached an apex in flight and turned, heading straight at her again with another shout.

As fast as she dared Sakura threw the card into the air, trying to implore The Windy to entrap The Song. When the Key came down it intersected the card as usual, but unlike normal there was no effect. Sakura could only contemplate this lack of result for a brief moment before The Song swooped in and knocked her flying through the air.

Sakura flew through the air towards a spiky plant, but her flight was stopped short after several yards against the soft fur of Keroberos, who had moved with instantaneous agility to break her fall. She had barely managed to keep hold of the Key as she flew through the air, but The Windy had been knocked from her hand and was caught up in the slipstream of The Song's passing.

As her eyes traced the direction of the card, Sakura failed to notice the large vines of the Venomous Tentacula plant she had been flying towards earlier reaching out for her and Keroberos. Its vines proved to be a couple of feet too short to reach them, but that didn't prevent it from silently thrashing them around in a futile attempt to latch on to both of its would be victims and pull them to its spiked center

Sakura tried to follow the path The Windy took through the air, but could barely spare a second to watch it fly into a bed of plants before her attention was dragged away to her side by another unearthly wail. She turned just in time to see The Song rearing for another pass.

Keroberos reacted to handle the attack this time. He would have preferred to just hit it with one of his fireballs, but Sakura had made it clear that she didn't want The Song hurt which severely limited his options. He had been around her long enough to not question her judgment, though. After all it had been her compassion which had earned Yue's loyalty, as well turned The Nothing into The Hope.

Any of his projectile attacks would have been too much so his only option was a more close quarter engagement. With this aim in mind, he launched into the air at The Song.

The Song tried to dodge, but Keroberos was easily the more experienced flier. He matched its maneuver, catching it at the apex of a roll. As gently as he could he knocked The Song to the side, sending it for a loop but otherwise leaving it unharmed.

Keroberos spared a quick glance towards Sakura, who nodded and turned away from the aerial combat. Keroberos would protect her as she retrieved The Windy that had been knocked away. Given The Song's agility and its airborne nature, most of her standard cards wouldn't be able to handle it. The Windy had proven itself fast enough and gentle enough that she preferred to use it if she could, especially when it was just laying on a small bed of harmless looking plants just a couple of yards away.

While Sakura ran over to pick up the card, it having landed in the middle of a bed of plants that Sakura didn't recognize but luckily happened to be harmless gillyweed, The Song tried once again to get past Keroberos and attack the young girl he was protecting. It feinted in the air and made to dodge past him. Keroberos would have none of it, though, and properly forecast then rebuffed The Song's maneuvers just as deftly as the first time he had sent it sprawling.

The Song retreated again from the guardian beast, who readied himself to intercept the next inevitable attack. Keroberos was taken by surprise when instead of charging again, The Song turned around and fled. He was left confused for several crucial moments until he looked below and saw Lisa and Anthony staring open-mouthed at the pair in the air. The Song was flying straight at them.

Keroberos tried to shout a warning, but it came out just a silently as everything else in the greenhouse besides the dreadful screams of The Song. Luckily his warning proved unnecessary as both students seemed to realize the danger at the exact same moment and turned to run.

Lisa looked around desperately for a path to escape as the pair fled the apparition. To her side she saw the door they had entered the greenhouse from, only a couple of yards away. Closed. Pursued as they were it might just as well have been a couple of miles away. The simple ordinary action of opening the heavy door would take only seconds, but these were seconds she and Anthony didn't have at the speed they were being approached.

Lisa and Anthony had no chance to regroup and blindly ran away along the path before them, a path which hit an abrupt dead end in a dark corner of the room. The two students were forced to come to an equally abrupt stop, lest they run into a wall. They turned around, staring at the onrushing assailant.

Beside them, a large Devil's Snare plant noticed the encroachment of the children to its domain and started moving its tendrils towards them. The tendrils looked soft, almost moist, and moved as if to encircle the pair while avoiding any beams of sunlight coming through the large greenhouse windows a few yards away.

Despite their Herbology classes, neither student noticed or paid any attention to the plant currently flanking them, their attention instead fully focused on the flying monstrosity chasing them. Anthony had no intention of being attacked helplessly and pulled out his wand. Taking her cue from Anthony, Lisa took out her wand as well.

Both thought frantically, desperate to think of some charm, jinx, hex, or even curse that they had learned which would be useful in this situation. Unfortunately Lisa couldn't think of any, and Anthony could only think of one. One was better than zero, though, so despite it being so seemingly useless, Anthony waved his wand and tried to shout out the charm, desperately hoping despite of the lack of sound that it would work.

Nothing happened.

Only for a moment. The end of his wand started to glow with the magical light of a Lumos charm. This caused The Song to pause briefly to examine the situation and this new development.

Possibly more importantly, and certainly unnoticed by everybody in the greenhouse, the large soft, springy tendrils of the Devil's Snare which had been silently surrounding the two children froze at the sudden appearance of this extra light in the greenhouse and then quickly retreated back whence it came.

Unlike the Devil's Snare, when the light failed to do anything besides sit at the end of Anthony's wand, The Song charged forward again. Keroberos was still right on its tail, but he was unlikely to catch it despite the momentary reprieve.

Sakura had almost reached The Windy and looked over her shoulder to see how Keroberos was doing. She didn't see him where she was expecting. This worried her. She took a quick scan of the air above her, looking for both Keroberos and The Song, but could see neither. Then a quick flash of gold through the foliage caught her attention. She looked further down and caught sight of The Song flying away from her at top speed, pursed closely by Keroberos. In front of the two of them she saw Lisa and Anthony, now crouched down clinging to each other, directly in the flight path of The Song.

Sakura reacted purely on instinct. Reaching into her robe and pulling out a card, she threw it into the air and chanted out as quickly as she could while tunneling her magic through the Key. Her spell was inaudible but that didn't matter; her was intention was clear, and her will manifested itself to The Shield. From there it projected through the air and around Anthony and Lisa.

The Song careened into the newly formed magical bubble, which flared brightly as it fought to protect the pair contained within from the wrath and fury just outside. The construct held, and after a millisecond which felt like an eternity, The Song was repelled and thrown back.

It only took seconds for the Song to regroup in the air. Seconds was all Keroberos needed. He flew directly in front of Lisa and Anthony, causing both to shout silently. He reared around and took a defensive posture in front of the two, making it clear in no uncertain terms that the two would not be hurt while he was there.

Keroberos could almost see the thought process going through The Song's head as it floated in the air. It was trying to figure out if it could break through his defenses. They both knew the answer to that question. Keroberos then chanced a glance over to see how Sakura was doing. She had turned her back again and was reaching over several plants, still trying to reach The Windy, which was just out of arms length.

The Song turned to follow Keroberos's gaze, and saw what appeared to be a small harmless girl with her back turned. It was an easy decision to make, and The Song once again ran away from the guardian beast towards the unprotected human.

There was no way to catch up to The Song and Keroberos knew it. Furthermore, unlike the young wizard and witch he was protecting, Keroberos knew his mistress could more than take care of herself. She had proven that more times than he could count. Despite this he couldn't help but shout out a warning, for all the good it would do in the silence of Greenhouse Three.

Whether it was by coincidence or telepathy, Sakura turned around looked up at that exact moment, The Windy finally retrieved and in her hand. It was just in time to see The Song charging at her like a tsunami of power and rage. Against this Sakura stood as firm and immovable as a rock, confident in her skills and that everything would end up alright.

At the speed The Song was traveling, it would take mere seconds for it to reach Sakura, more than enough time for her to do what she wanted to. She took the card she had retrieved moments ago and with more confidence than she really felt inside she threw it into the air.

Sakura started to chant. Like The Shield earlier, her voice was suppressed by her own magic, but that didn't affect her. She already had cast one spell so knew it could be done, and her will couldn't have been made more clear if she had shouted her request from the spire on top of Ravenclaw Tower itself.

She threw the card at The Song, even though it would have no direct effect on it. It swirled through the air up, over, and eventually back in front of her where she tagged it squarely with the Key. Like The Shield earlier, despite the lack of vocals, her magic channeled through the Key as it always did, funneled into the card, and ultimately caused The Windy to manifest.

Sakura could see the gentle magnificent figure of The Windy expanding and climbing out of the card, reaching a size which overshadowed The Song. It cast its tendrils of power at the onrushing figure. The Song tried to dodge the chains of air as it had dodged Keroberos's fireballs from before, but The Windy's perfect control over the currents easily matched The Song's maneuvers and caught it firm.

Now that the Song was securely held, Sakura slowly approached it. It struggled and strained against The Windy, but like so many other cards in the past, The Windy's hold on it held and it had no chance of escaping.

Much like The Jump earlier, Sakura held the Key in front of her in a ready position. She then raised it in a grand gesture, and, swinging it down, impelled The Song to return to its natural form.

The energy streamed out of The Song in all directions before coagulating in a mass in front of Sakura, swirling faster and faster in a cacophony of power. From this maelstrom the simple form of a card materialized, quietly hovering in midair waiting to be taken possession of.

While the card had been restored, some of the energy had peeled away and had been drawn into the head of the Key, causing it to glow with what looked like an inky blackness but was more accurately described as a very dark gray color. This brought with it an uncomfortable feeling of illness to Sakura. An overall feeling of aching and despair characteristic of the most severe of colds filled Sakura and made her long to purge the feeling from her body with some metaphysical filter.

Unlike a traditional sickness, Sakura figured that this feeling was caused by whatever happened to The Song, rather than some strange virus or bacteria. That didn't do anything to make it feel better, though, and she hoped to remove the effect as quickly as possible.

Sakura gathered her will and forced herself to overcome the lethargy which had invaded her body to move the Key like she had after she had after she had resealed The Jump. There was no effect and the feeling refused to leave her. She tried again with more force and effort, but again with little effect.

Sakura mustered all the energy she could in her state and flung the Key in a downward stroke, picturing like there was some ball or something stuck in the Key which she was trying to throw out with all her might.

Half way through the stroke, the Key released the energy it had been holding. An ear-splitting explosion of noise erupted from the star at the end of the Key, throwing Sakura off her feet.

Even as far away as they were, Lisa felt as if her eardrums had been shattered. That feeling was transcended with horror as she watched Sakura flying backwards through the air. With no Keroberos to block her fall, she flew backwards several yards through the air, bouncing once and skidding to a stop flat on her back.

"Sakura!" Keroberos, Lisa, and Anthony all shouted.

They were at her side moments later, running as fast as they could, or flying in the case of Keroberos.

"Are you okay?" Keroberos asked.

"I think so," Sakura answered.

Sakura pushed tried to push herself up, but then winced as she felt a jab of pain in her arm. Girding herself she tried again, ignoring the pain and pushing herself up to a sitting position.

"Don't overdo it. It looks like you're hurt," Keroberos said.

Her arms were covered in scratches and scrapes, a couple threatening to start openly bleeding. Her legs didn't look any better.

"Your back," Lisa gasped.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"It looks pretty bad. We better get you to Madam Pomfrey," Anthony said.

"I'm okay," Sakura insisted. She experimentally turned her torso a bit and felt nothing out of the ordinary besides a little stiffness. She went on to say, "More importantly, we should leave before somebody comes."

"That's a good idea," Keroberos agreed.

The area Sakura had been standing moments earlier looked, not coincidentally, like the site of an explosion. There weren't any scorch marks anywhere, but there was a tell-tale hole in the ground radiating in a circular pattern. Several of the surrounding plants were showing damage as well. A giant tree Sakura didn't recognize had several of its branches broken off, and it had gotten off lucky. A neighboring group of flowers which looked like mini-umbrellas and a collection of mandrake plants on the other side of Sakura had both been uprooted by the force of the blow, and that was just the damage Sakura saw with a momentary glance.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the whole castle heard that sound. Somebody's probably coming to investigate right now," Anthony said.

"Do you think you can get her on my back? I can carry her out of here," Keroberos said.

"No, I can walk," Sakura said.

"Are you sure?" Lisa asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Sakura insisted, climbing to her feet with only a minimal amount of wincing.

"Okay, but don't overdo it," Keroberos repeated.

After putting The Windy, The Shield, and The Song away, Sakura took a quick skim through her book to make sure she hadn't lost or otherwise missed a card. With all cards accounted for, Sakura allowed the Key to return to its smaller form and returned it in the usual place around her neck as she walked out of the greenhouse. She was once again followed by Keroberos who was followed in turn by Lisa and Anthony.

Sakura ended up setting the pace, despite walking with a modest limp. Nobody else wanted to go any faster, lest they push her too hard as they headed towards the door.

In a sense the three first year students' ignorance about many of the plants which surrounded them was a good thing. It was nothing short of a miracle that none of them had been seriously injured or killed in the deathtrap that Greenhouse Three could be to the unaware. No nightmares of being eaten alive by a plant would haunt them, and indeed it wouldn't be for several years that any of them would even realize how dangerous some of the foliage which surrounded them could be and exactly how lucky they had been.

None of this was on their mind as they opened the door they had entered from mere minutes earlier. A blast of cool air blew the hot sticky humidity of the greenhouse away from their bodies as they left the room, refreshing the four of them and letting them feel like their trial was finally over.

* * *

Last Updated: March 16, 2013


	12. 12: Sakura and the Trial's Aftermath

Chapter 12: Sakura and the Trial's Aftermath

Sakura was worried. If a professor were to appear and ask her what she was doing wandering around the castle rather than sitting for exams she would have no idea what to say, let alone if this hypothetical professor continued to interrogate her by asking harder questions like why was hurt. Despite her limp, she was desperate to get to a safer location before a staff member investigating the ruckus she had caused in the greenhouse stumbled across their group.

Keroberos had transformed back to his fake form and now more resembled a plushie doll than a predator cat. This, at least, would help to avoid one of the more complicated questions they would face if they were found. It might even avert a magical fight, depending on how well informed and how wand-happy the staff member who saw Keroberos was.

As the group turned corner after corner, slowly putting distance between them and the disaster zone Greenhouse Three had become, Sakura slowly began to relax. It seemed they would be able to get away without any awkward questions.

Any relief she was feeling was short-lived, however, as they returned to where they had left Wayne earlier. He was sitting against a wall and nervously chewing his fingernails. He sprang to his feet and ran to Sakura the moment she came into view.

"Are you okay?" Wayne asked in a slightly too loud voice.

"I'm okay," Sakura said, making a gesture with her hands to reinforce the message.

"What happened?" Wayne asked.

"It's complicated," Sakura said.

"What?" Wayne asked.

"There was this big fight," Lisa volunteered. "Sakura did something to kill this horrendous ghost, although kill is the wrong word because it was already dead. Ghost is wrong too because I do not think it was a ghost. Regardless, it was quite impressive."

"What did you say?" Wayne asked.

"She said," Anthony started, but then changed his mind and instead shouted, "never mind!"

"I think Wayne still cannot hear us," Lisa said, having come to the same conclusion as Anthony. "We simply must get some help for him."

"We can go see Professor Mizuki. She," Sakura started saying, before stumbled a bit and then catching herself. "She can help."

"No, we really ought to bring him to the hospital wing to see Madam Pomfrey. You should go see her too. You look to be in worse shape than he is," Anthony said.

Sakura was too tired, not to mention dizzy, to protest. Instead she simply acquiesced, saying, "Okay."

"What?" Wayne asked.

Lisa just took Wayne by the hand and led him to hospital wing of Hogwarts Castle. The others followed right behind them. The trip passed in silence. With Wayne being unable to hear anything it just didn't feel worth the effort to try to talk, especially as talking would also increase the chance that a wandering ghost or teacher would notice them.

After a trip which felt much longer than it actually was, they finally arrived at the hospital wing. The door was open, but Lisa knocked before entering anyway. Madam Pomfrey looked up from her desk, caught sight of the four of them, and then did a double take towards Sakura. She got up from her desk and strode over to the students.

"Well? What do we have here?" Madam Pomfrey asked, staring directly at Sakura.

Sakura hesitated. Despite all of the time that had passed since the encounter with The Song, she hadn't put any thought into what explanation she was going to give for her injuries. Eventually she hesitantly suggested, "I fell over?"

"Really?" Madam Pomfrey asked incredulously. "You look pretty hurt for having just fallen over. What about your clothes? Did they just fall over too?"

"Ahh, I don't know," Sakura said.

"Alright, would any of you care to explain what really happened then?" Madam Pomfrey asked, turning to Lisa, Anthony, and Wayne.

Lisa and Anthony glanced towards each other. A brief flash of understanding passed between them, as between all children when being interrogated by an adult, and they shook their heads towards Madam Pomfrey. Wayne didn't even give the adult that courtesy, acting for all the world like he hadn't even heard the question.

"I see. Probably some prank or something that went wrong. You had better not turn into the next set of Weasley twins. Those two cause me enough trouble as it is," Madam Pomfrey said.

Sakura and the others had the decency to look sheepish to that accusation. Despite the fact the Weasley twins were in a different house and a different year than them, their reputation was so widespread that even the first year Ravenclaws spoke in hushed whispers of their pranks; although at times it was hard to tell what was true, what was embellishment, and what was outright made up. Having been through so many incredible experiences herself, Sakura was inclined to believe most of it was true.

"All right, all right. Don't just stand around then. Let's have a look," Madam Pomfrey prompted to Sakura.

Madam Pomfrey led Sakura over to one of the nearby beds and asked, "Do you think you can get up there?"

"I think so," Sakura said, and struggled up onto the bed before taking a seat.

"Hmm," Madam Pomfrey murmured to herself. She took one of Sakura's hands and examined the attached arm. She then took Sakura's other hand and repeated the examination. "These cuts and burns look quite serious. I'd ask you what you were doing if I thought you had any chance of telling me. Can you take off your robe?"

Sakura had to get off the bed to comply. She gave a small wince of pain as she landed on the floor, and another as she moved her arm to take off her robe. Despite her winces, the robe came off without too much difficulty. In fact it almost fell off on its own volition, as damaged as it was. That it had managed to stay on during the trip from Greenhouse Three to the hospital wing was minor miracle in and of itself. It had more holes than cloth remaining, and certainly looked nothing like the fine Hogwarts uniform it had originally been.

With the robe removed it became obvious exactly how much the robe, no matter how damaged it was, had hid Sakura's condition. Lisa gave a small gasp at the sight. Sakura had numerous lacerations and burns, many of them still bleeding, plainly visible through her damaged shirt and skirt, and she looked every bit the part of an improbable survivor of a bomb blast. While she didn't seem to be in any immediate danger of falling over dead, it did look extremely painful.

"What happened? Did another broom explode or something?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Something like that," Anthony said.

"Right," Madam Pomfrey said, obviously not convinced. "Well, on the positive side, it doesn't look like there is anything too unusual here. With the proper salves and potions we should have you back to normal in no time. Wait here and I'll get something for those cuts and burns."

She then turned to the other three students and said, "There's no reason for you to stick around. Your friend will be fine once I'm through with her."

Without waiting for a response, Madam Pomfrey walked into a small room off to the side, leaving Lisa, Anthony, and Wayne standing dumbfounded.

She returned a few minutes later carrying a small bottle. Handing it over to Sakura she said, "Here. Rub this on your injuries and you'll be better in two shakes, I'd bet my wand. "

Sakura took the bottle and brought it up to her eye. Turning it over in her hand, she saw the word "Dittany" scrawled on a small label on the bottle. Sakura held the bottle unsure what to do with it.

"Go on. Pour some on your wounds, but don't use too much. It's not like hand cream. Just a few drops on each spot should be all you need. Be sure to rub it in to get the full effect," Madam Pomfrey said.

It was good that only few drops were needed as the bottle was mostly empty. Sakura carefully poured the tincture onto a cut on her left arm then rubbed it in as best she could. The liquid stung as it touched the open wound, but that sensation quickly turned into a soothing cool feeling which muted the pain behind a wooly numbness. She could almost feeling the skin growing back together, although a careful examination at her wound showed nothing like that happening.

When it became obvious to Madam Pomfrey that Sakura wouldn't need any other assistance or prompting, she turned to the other students and pointedly asked, "So, what are you all still doing here then? I told you your friend was going to be fine. Don't you have exams or something?"

"Wayne is hurt as well," Lisa quickly explained.

"Is he? So what's wrong with you then?" Madam Pomfrey asked Wayne.

Wayne gave no response.

"Out with it now. Don't be shy. What's wrong?" Madam Pomfrey tried again, with a similar lack of response.

"We think he cannot hear anything," Lisa said.

"Is that true?" Madam Pomfrey asked Wayne. Then leaning in closer to his ear she shouted, "You can't hear anything?"

Madam Pomfrey watched very carefully for any reaction at all, even an involuntary tensing of the face, which might have indicated that this was all an elaborate prank. When she saw none her worry levels immediately jumped.

"Why didn't you tell me that first?" Madam Pomfrey asked exasperated. Without waiting for a response, she went on, "What happened to him?"

Lisa and Wayne shared a glance with Sakura and Keroberos. Nobody said anything.

"Okay, between Wayne's deafness and Sakura's condition something definitely happened, and you're going to tell me right now," Madam Pomfrey said, the sharp edge of a demand coloring her voice.

Still no response.

"You'd better tell me before I go get Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout and have them deal with the lot of you," Madam Pomfrey said.

A staring match ensured between Madam Pomfrey and the children. Moments ticked by, one after the other. Finally, Anthony cracked and said, "There was this, I don't know, this big ghost or spirit or something. I don't know what it was but it kept screaming. It was really loud. We think it got Wayne."

"A spirit you say? Is that true?" Madam Pomfrey asked Lisa.

"Yes," Lisa agreed. "It sounded absolutely dreadful."

"What kind of spirit. What did it look like? Did it look like a person, or like a horse, or maybe like a dragon?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"I think it looked similar to a person, but it was hard to see for certain with it flying through the air as it did," Lisa said.

"It was kind of like a ghost, I guess, only it was covered it all these dark rags or something," Anthony added.

"That sounds like a mad banshee, which would explain Wayne's deafness. You're lucky to be alive. A banshee rarely attacks, but when it does it is extremely dangerous. Luckily, banshee induced deafness isn't too complicated a medical condition to treat in survivors. If this really is banshee caused, we should be able to cure Wayne without too many complications. Now let's have a look at you," Madam Pomfrey said.

Madam Pomfrey took Wayne's head in her hands and gently but firmly held it still. She leaned in and stared into his ear. She then pulled a stone out of her pocket and waved it around his head. Despite the fact the stone didn't react in any way that the children could notice, Madam Pomfrey gave a satisfied smile.

"Right. This should be easy enough to treat. Still I better go and report this to Professor Dumbledore. Now where did you say this happened?" Madam Pomfrey asked

"I don't think you need to report it or anything. It's gone now," Sakura said, eager to avoid any sort of investigation into what had happened. She was nearing the end of the bottle of dittany, but was also reaching the end of her injuries as well. It looked like she would have enough, barely.

"That's even worse. If a mad banshee is on the loose there's no end to the amount of trouble it can cause," Madam Pomfrey said.

"No, it's gone, gone. We dealt with it," Anthony said.

Madam Pomfrey looked at him carefully, trying to see if he was lying or exaggerating. "Are you sure? I somehow doubt you could deal with one."

"He's telling the truth," Sakura said, still hopeful to avoid any complications.

Madam Pomfrey examined Sakura as well, but could see no sign of lying in her face either. "Even if that's true I still need to report it. There's something wrong with the castle's wards if something like this happened. Where did you see it?"

None of the students volunteered the information.

"I could leave it for Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout to find out from you if you prefer," Madam Pomfrey repeated.

This time it was Lisa who cracked, saying, "It was in Greenhouse Three."

"Fine. I have a report to file. Sakura, you stay here and rest," Madam Pomfrey said, not even bothering to ask what they had been doing near the greenhouses. She then turned to Lisa and Anthony and added, "And you two need to get back to your classes."

"Must we?" Lisa asked. "I wanted to stay and see how Wayne was doing."

"Wayne is going to be coming with me. I need to bring him to see Professor Dumbledore before I can start treating him," Madam Pomfrey said.

"Can we come too?" Sakura asked.

"No you most certainly cannot. You need to stay here and rest, unless you want to go back to class immediately," Madam Pomfrey said. She then turned towards Anthony and Lisa and continued, "And you two certainly need to go back to class. You have exams, as I recall. You Ravenclaws are all the same. I won't let you use this as an excuse to get some extra study time. If I need more information I know where to find you. Now out with the both of you," Madam Pomfrey said.

Lisa tried to protest again, but Madam Pomfrey would have none of it. Without further ado she herded Lisa and Anthony out of the room.

"And you. Bed. I have a report to make, and you had better still be in bed when I get back," Madam Pomfrey said to Sakura. She then turned and walked briskly towards the headmaster's office, holding Wayne by his hand.

Sakura tried to lie down in the bed. It took her a few tries before she found a position which felt comfortable despite all of the points of pain covering her body. With nothing to do she quickly found herself bored.

"Kero-chan, do you think you can go back to the dorm room and bring me 'The Standard Book of Spells'?" Sakura asked.

"Aww, that's one of the bigger ones too. Can't I just get 'The Dark Forces' or something?" Keroberos said back.

"That's a good idea, Kero-chan. Can you get both 'The Standard Book of Spells' and 'The Dark Forces'?" Sakura asked.

"Sa-ku-ra," Keroberos whined, but left to do it before Sakura increased his work load any more.

"Can you get a robe too?" Sakura called after the retreating guardian beast, who sped up his flight out of earshot at this request.

As Keroberos flew away, Sakura thought about her adventure in the greenhouse. She had a guess or two about what had happened but still needed to talk to Wayne to find out the truth of it all. She would also need to talk with him and make sure he didn't reveal too much about the Sakura Cards to anybody as well. He had said he wouldn't go around talking about them months ago, but that was months ago and before this most recent event.

Sakura tried her best to relax in the bed while she planned how she hoped the conversation would go.

* * *

Sakura was poring over "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection" while sitting up in bed. She had been lying down, but her arms had gotten tired holding the book up in the air. The attempt to avoid being bothered by the cuts and burns on her body were also a reason that she had sat up, although a relatively minor reason. Most of her injuries had healed over already. In Sakura's opinion it was a shame that the magical community wasn't willing to share its medicine with the muggle community. She was sure countless people could be helped with a cure as strong as dittany, let alone the other treatments which she had seen and heard about, if only the wizards and witches were willing to share what they knew.

Partly because of what had happened on Halloween, Sakura was quite advanced in her studies in the Defense Against the Dark Arts. She had gone beyond what Professor Quirrel had taught in class and was currently reading about dementors. There was no chance of it being on any exam, but Sakura thought getting a bit ahead could be helpful anyway, especially if she ever actually ended up facing one of the strange threats described in the book.

The description of how the Patronus charm protected people from dementors was reminiscent to Sakura of The Hope. They weren't the same by any stretch, the patronus being composed of happiness rather than hopefulness, but given dementor's end result was to create sorrow and despair by consuming human happiness, in principle using The Hope could be just as effective as a Patronus charm. Possibly more effective if the end state of the user and dementor was the important aspect of stopping an attack, or possibly less effective if interrupting the process of a dementor's feeding was the important aspect of stopping an attack.

Sakura was so lost in thought considering this and how she might discover which of the two theories was the true one that she barely noticed the three people approaching the hospital wing. What finally shook her out of her reverie was hearing Gloria asking, "...without using a wand then?"

"I'm telling you I did do it," Anthony said.

"You just tried three times, and nothing happened," Gloria said.

"I just can't do it right now," Anthony said with a touch of disappointment in his voice.

"Anthony truly did do it. I saw it myself. The whole greenhouse was silent, but his wand started glowing," Lisa said. Her voice was strained, and her breathing sounded labored.

The three students came into view a second later, Gloria leading the group. She took a look at Sakura and said, "Oh, hey there Sakura. Lisa and Anthony were telling me about the adventure you had in the greenhouse, but it looks like they might have exaggerated it a bit. They made it sound like you were half-dead, but you look pretty good to me."

"It is all true," Lisa protested weakly. She looked wan and Sakura could make out a few droplets of sweat on her brow.

"I'm telling you it happened. Sakura silenced everything, and I managed to cast a charm without saying anything. Then Sakura disintegrated that creature somehow, but got all torn up in the process," Anthony agreed.

"Well, Sakura's in here, so there must be at least some truth in what you're saying. Oh, why do all the fun things always happen to other people?" Gloria asked.

"What are you three doing here anyway?" Keroberos asked.

"We wanted to find out what happened from Wayne, and see how you are feeling as well," Lisa said, breathing heavily. She was half bent over and leaning on one of the bed to support herself.

"Won't Madam Pomfrey kick you out again?" Sakura asked.

"Not with these," Anthony declared, holding out a plain box.

"Hoe? What is that?" Sakura asked.

"Don't you remember, from the Hogwarts Express?" Gloria asked, holding out a box of her own.

"Are those those skiving things the Weasley twins were selling?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. It was Anthony's idea," Lisa said, weakly gesturing towards the boy.

"What about you Gloria? Where did you come from?" Keroberos asked.

"I saw Anthony and Lisa here outside of Gryffindor Tower. I was the one who let them in to the Weasley's Shop," Gloria explained.

"It's a good thing too. Bloody portrait kept going on and on about some password," Anthony said.

"Password? What password?" Sakura asked.

"Apparently Gryffindor does not use a puzzle like Ravenclaw does to guard their dormitories. They use a password," Lisa explained.

"That's the first I heard of any Ravenclaw puzzle. I had assumed everybody used a password to get past a portrait like we do," Gloria said. "Passwords sound like a better idea, too. A puzzle sounds dangerous. Anybody could just figure it out and get in."

"It sounds easier too. It took me forever to figure out 'what gets wetter the more it dries?'" Sakura said.

Without any notice of Gloria's sudden thoughtful appearance, Keroberos said, "Hold on, back up. It sounds like a lot of stuff happened since you left here, so maybe you should start from the beginning."

"Well we both, Anthony and I, wanted to hear what happened to Wayne, and it is not like we would be able to slip into the Charms examination unnoticed even if we did go back there," Lisa said.

"So then I get this great idea of using those Skiving Snackboxes which Gloria is always on about. I remembered what those twins said on the train, so Lisa and I headed over to Gryffindor Tower figuring we could get in and get some," Anthony continued.

"When we got to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, we ran into this big picture of a fat lady. It kept asking us for some password, but neither Anthony nor I knew what it was talking about. It was starting to get angry and looked like it may go and fetch help when all of a sudden the door opens and Gloria steps out," Lisa said.

"Hmm?" Gloria asked. She shook herself for a second and said. "Oh, right. I was just going to go explore the castle some more when I saw these two. By the way, what's the answer to that puzzle?"

"Puzzle? What puzzle?" Anthony asked.

"That one Sakura said, about getting wetter the more it dries. Is it a Veela or something?" Gloria said.

"You mean the towel puzzle?" Sakura asked.

"Towel puzzle? Oh! I get it," Gloria said, her eyes widening in realization. "Those puzzles are tough. Anyway, they mentioned they needed some Skiving Snackboxes, but neither had used any before so I thought it was strange and decided to follow them. I took them to the seventh floor to the disused bathroom where Fred and George run their shop."

"That still sounds weird to me, running a store in a bathroom," Sakura said.

"A boy's bathroom at that. It still felt a bit weird to go into, even if nobody uses it anymore for..." Lisa hesitated for a second, "you know."

"It's Fred and George. They do weird things. You get used to it, and it's not like anybody was using it for anything else. Besides it's very convenient there too," Gloria said.

"Maybe for you Gryffindors," Anthony said.

"Well Gryffindors are the majority of their customers," Gloria said.

"Probably because they are the only ones who can reach them," Anthony said.

"Or it's because we Gryffindors are braver and more willing to bend the rules if the reasons are right," Gloria countered.

"Anyway," Lisa said, bringing the story thread back into focus, "everything was all packed away in all these boxes. Apparently the Weasley twins had closed their store some while ago, but somehow Gloria managed to convince them to find some of those pills for us despite that."

"Well I have given them a lot of business over the past year," Gloria said, with an impish grin.

"So we get all this stuff, and before anybody can say anything Lisa goes and pops one into her mouth," Anthony said.

"I tried to warn her they were strong," Gloria said.

"That was a mistake, but at least it gave a good excuse for why we were coming to the hospital wing if anybody had asked us, or if Madam Pomfrey had been in when we showed up," Lisa said.

"Although nobody did, and Madam Pomfrey is still out," Anthony pointed out.

"They could have," Lisa answered.

"And on the way here, these two told me some of what happened. Is it true that you cast all those charms and jinxes?" Gloria asked.

Sakura could have lied, but with both Lisa and Anthony around it would have been pointless. Besides she didn't like lying to her friends. She looked around to make sure nobody else was in the room, and then said in a low voice, "Yes. It's related to what I did back on the Hogwarts Express last September, and what happened to Peeves back in March."

"The Hogwarts Express? I hadn't heard anything about anything happening during the trip. What did you do there?" Lisa asked.

"It is? Why have you been keeping all of this a secret?" Gloria asked, ignoring Lisa's question.

"Professor Mizuki and Eriol said that if the wizards and witches here found out about the cards they might try to steal them or something. I'd appreciate it if you kept it a secret too," Sakura said. What had happened with Wayne seemed to justify that secrecy as well, assuming Wayne had actually stolen the card as all the evidence currently suggested.

"I see. Well it was still really cool. I won't tell anybody about it," Anthony promised.

"Me either," Lisa agreed.

"Oh, sure thing, but in return you better show us some of the other things you can do too," Gloria said.

"Wait, is this also related to the time you jumped out the window way back when as well?" Lisa asked.

"Jumped out of a window?" Anthony asked.

"Yes. One of the things I can do is fly," Sakura admitted.

"Fly, like on a broom?" Gloria asked.

"No, nothing like that. Fly, fly. Like this, flying," Keroberos said, flying in a figure eight in the middle of the air to demonstrate.

"That's brilliant. It's got to be safer than those bloody exploding brooms too," Anthony said.

"Exploding brooms?" Gloria asked.

"Shh, some people are coming," Keroberos interrupted.

"Then we'd better eat our pills too," Anthony said, pulling out a sickly red square from his box. He stared at it for a moment. Gloria, who had much more experience with the pills, had already swallowed hers and positioned herself on a bed in preparation for the discomfort which was to come. Anthony finally followed suit, popping the pill into his mouth and choosing a different bed to lie down in.

Both immediately started to pale, turning a color similar to Lisa's, and visibly started sweating. They also both seemed to realize at the same moment the mistake they had made of not disposing of the boxes earlier. They remained as so much incriminating evidence, and both Anthony and Gloria frantically looked around for a place to hide them.

No sooner had Gloria and Anthony disposed of their now empty boxes as best they could then Madam Pomfrey walked into the hospital. Wayne followed just behind her, being firmly held by the hand.

"Now let's see what we can do about your hearing," Madam Pomfrey said, as much to herself out of habit than anything. "Don't worry, we'll have you sorted in two..."

Madam Pomfrey trailed off as she took in the sight in front of her. In addition to Sakura, who she had been expecting to see albeit not wearing a new robe, there were three other students in bed as well.

"Sakura, you seem to be looking better, but I thought I told you to stay in bed," Madam Pomfrey said, addressing her first.

"I did stay in bed, the whole time," Sakura insisted.

"Did you now? And I suppose you just happened to know the Accio charm and happened to summon that robe around you then?" Madam Pomfrey accused.

"No. I just asked Kero-chan to bring it to me, along with these books," Sakura said, picking up the various books which surrounded her as a demonstration to Madam Pomfrey.

"Are you telling me this little thing brought all of that stuff to you?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"I did. That stuff is heavy, too. It was hard work," Keroberos insisted.

"Well, okay then, but that still doesn't explain what you three are doing here," Madam Pomfrey said, turning to address the three other students. "I told you to go back to classes. Now I find you're not only back, but with a new person too. What's going on?"

Lisa gave out a loud groan in response to the accusation. Gloria was more coherent, saying, "We're all feeling sick and need help. I think it was something we ate."

"I might have known. Well, let's have a look at you then," Madam Pomfrey said, shaking her head and walking first over to Anthony. Just underneath his bed was the box Anthony had tried to get rid of, still just barely in sight.

She examined each of the students in turn. It was a fairly superficial examination. Madam Pomfrey just held Anthony's eyelid open while looking carefully around his eyes, then felt his arm, and finally blew into his ear. Sakura wasn't sure what those tests were supposed to reveal, but assumed they must do something.

Madam Pomfrey then went on to examine Lisa, who had no telltale boxes near her. She gave Lisa the same brief inspection she had given Anthony earlier.

Finally, Madam Pomfrey approached Gloria. While there was nothing under her bed, there was a suspicious bulge underneath the blanket just to Gloria's side. Madam Pomfrey barely even gave her a cursory examination.

"Right. This is the results of one of those Weasley twins' sickness pills, isn't it?" Madam Pomfrey finally declared. "No use trying to hide it, I can tell."

Sakura froze. Madam Pomfrey was right of course, but there was no way Sakura was going to confirm it. Even though she wasn't part of this particular rule-bending, she still could feel the tenseness of the situation as Lisa, Gloria, and Anthony sweated both proverbially and literally under the pressure.

"You shouldn't be skipping classes, and you most certainly shouldn't be skipping final exams. I'm disappointed in you, especially you Gloria. I told you last time to never do anything like this again" Madam Pomfrey said.

"Sorry, ma'am," Gloria answered.

"Don't waste my time. I need to deal with Wayne and Sakura here. Just take the cure pill and be gone with you," Madam Pomfrey said. "I'll tell you what, I'll even write you a note so you won't get in trouble, but you'd best not try to pull something like this again or I'll take the cure from you and let you suffer while I retrieve Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall myself."

"B..b..but..." Lisa stammered out.

"But what, Lisa?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

Sakura watched her friend fidget under Madam Pomfrey's stern glance. It couldn't have been made any easier by the pill she had eaten earlier.

"Well?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"We want to talk to Wayne," Lisa finally said.

"You do? Why is that?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"We're very concerned about him," Anthony said.

"For his health, you know?" Gloria agreed.

"Is that all it is? Fine, I understand. However you really shouldn't be experimenting with unknown magic just to visit here. You could have just asked me," Madam Pomfrey said, completely ignoring how she had ordered them out of the room earlier.

"So we can stay then?" Gloria asked.

"Well," Madam Pomfrey hesitated. "I guess so. But not too long, and you better not do this kind of thing again. Now if you will excuse us, I need to see about curing Wayne here."

Madam Pomfrey then walked back into the side room, leaving the children and Keroberos alone again.

With their ruse discovered, Sakura's three friends no longer had a reason to continue with their suffering, and each quickly popped the disgusting looking green square pills which would was supposed to cure them into their mouths. The effect was immediately visible to Sakura as color returned to their faces and they seemed to literally breathe easier. She resolved to avoid those Skiving Snackboxes of the Weasley twins if she could at all help it.

The only person who seemed to not know what was going on was Wayne himself, who sat on a bed looking around in confused silence at the antics surrounding him.

Madam Pomfrey didn't even bother feigning surprise at the miraculous cure of the three children when she returned holding a draught of some foul smelling drink several minutes later. It looked absolutely disgusting, and Sakura swore she could even see some green smoke drifting up from the top of the small vial.

"That smells terrible," Sakura said.

"I'm glad I don't have to drink that," Anthony agreed.

"It's a good thing the banshee didn't get you then," Madam Pomfrey declared.

Wayne's ears may not have been working correctly but his eyes and his nose were both in fine shape, and both were telling him the same message that he had been unable to hear from Sakura and Anthony. He squirmed back away from Madam Pomfrey and blocked his mouth with his hands.

"Relax will you," Madam Pomfrey said, fixing Wayne with a harsh stare. Even though he couldn't hear her, Madam Pomfrey's message came across loud and clear. Wayne stopped squirming, although he didn't drop his hands.

"This isn't even meant to be drunk," Madam Pomfrey said, more to herself than for the benefit of anybody in the room. "It's meant to be poured into the ear."

So saying she reached over and grabbed Wayne's ear, pulled him closer to her, and then tilted his head so that it was sideways. With him held thus, she casually poured half of the content of the vial into Wayne's ear. Madam Pomfrey then grabbed his other ear and turned his head the other direction, several drops of liquid spilling out from his ear onto his clothing. She then poured the remainder of the vial into his other ear, and then stood back and watched him closely.

Sakura felt sorry for Wayne. She hated it when water got into her ear when taking a bath or swimming, and that was just plain water as opposed to some smelly oily concoction. That was not even taking into account that Wayne would now need to go through the rest of the day smelling of that foul potion.

Several seconds passed in which nothing happened.

The tense silence was broken when Madam Pomfrey abruptly brought her hands together in a sharp clap just above Wayne's head.

Despite being several yards away, Sakura had been surprised enough to tense up. This was nothing compared to Wayne's reaction. He gave a yell of shock and jumped up several inches, clutching his ears with his hands as he did so.

"Good, just like I thought. You should wait here for a while for the oil to wear off. Be careful. Your hearing will be extra-sensitive for a while. In the mean time, I'm sure your friends have some questions to ask you," Madam Pomfrey said. Then addressing everybody else in the room she added, "Quietly, though. You'd better make it fast, too. I won't have you shirking around here all day, skipping your tests."

So saying, she stood up and walked back to her desk on the other side of the room, leaving the children behind to talk amongst themselves.

Sakura was the first to get off her bed and get to Wayne's side, although she immediately regretted it due to the smell. She didn't hold this position on her own for long, though. Anthony, Lisa, and Gloria were right behind her, and all three quickly crowded around the bed.

"How are you feeling?" Lisa asked. Then noticing Wayne's wincing and shrinking away, in a quieter voice said, "Sorry. How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine. Well, except for the obvious," Wayne answered.

He looked down as he said that and noticed that some of the greasy green liquid had landed in the palms of his hands. He wiped them against his robe, with the net effect being that his ears, hands, and now robe all had this stinky oil covering them.

"So, what happened to you anyway? Where did that ghost thingy come from?" Anthony asked in a low voice. The sensitivity of Wayne's ears turned out to be very convenient as it provided the perfect excuse to talk in whispers. Nobody wanted Madam Pomfrey to overhear what they were talking about.

"I don't know. I wasn't doing anything," Wayne said, still looking down at his hands.

"That's got to be the guiltiest look I've ever seen. I'll bet he took the card," Keroberos said.

"I didn't," Wayne insisted.

"Really?" Sakura asked.

Wayne hesitated a second, looking from face to face, before saying, "Alright, alright. I did take it. But I didn't mean anything by it. Honest."

"I knew it," Keroberos said.

"Wait, what happened now? What did you do?" Lisa asked. She was feeling a little lost. A look over at Anthony showed he was equally lost, and Gloria looked even more lost than they were.

"I was just playing around. Honest. I didn't mean anything by it. I swear. I didn't know it'd be like last time. Sakura made it look so easy," Wayne said.

"That's fine, but what did you do?" Gloria asked, in a raised voice.

That managed to shock Wayne enough to interrupt his rambling and instead make him cover his ears again while giving a cry of pain.

"I said quietly," Madam Pomfrey called out from across the room. She then turned back to the report she was writing, leaving the children to talk amongst themselves again.

"So? What happened then?" Anthony asked.

"Well, Peeves was annoying me," Wayne said.

"He annoys everybody," Lisa said.

"No, it's not the same. I mean really annoying me. I think he really hates me or something," Wayne said.

Sakura nodded in sympathy. She had felt like Peeves had targeted her specifically as well up until their confrontation on White Day, but she had no idea that Wayne felt the same way. She wondered if everybody in Hogwarts felt the same way as well.

"Then there was that thing that Sakura did in the hallway. That got me thinking. If I could do the same thing she did then maybe I could get rid of Peeves," Wayne said.

"So what did you do then?" Sakura asked. "How did you get the card and what did you do with it?"

"I followed one of the other students into Ravenclaw Tower, and I found your cards. You have so many of them, and I only wanted one. I didn't think you would mind. But then Keroberos turned around and started yelling at me, and I ran away. Then I ran into Peeves. He was just as impossible as always, but when I showed him the card he just laughed at me," Wayne said.

"So you," Sakura started asking.

"Yeah. It didn't seem that hard, right. You just need to tap your wand against the card and say what's on the card right? It's even labeled and everything," Wayne said. "But it all went wrong. This strange thing flew out and ran away towards the greenhouses. I tried to chase after it, but the next thing I knew you were all around me and I couldn't hear anything. "

"If that's what happened, then no wonder The Song went berserk. See, that's why we got to keep Sakura Cards a secret, so people like Wayne here don't mess things up and try to take them and do things like this, or worse," Keroberos said. Lisa and Anthony, who had both witnessed the destruction in Greenhouse Three, nodded in understanding.

"What do you mean mess up?" Gloria asked. "That's all I saw her do too. It didn't seem that hard."

"It's a lot more complicated than that. Suffice it to say if you do something like what Wayne did without knowing what you're doing it will cause a major disaster, like he did," Keroberos said.

"If it is so dangerous, then should we not tell the professors about it?" Lisa asked.

"Okay, visiting time's over. It's time for you to be heading back to classes, too," Madam Pomfrey said, looming large over the children. She gave no indication if she had heard the last statement. "Here are those notes I promised you. You too, Sakura. You look to be in good enough shape by my eye. Don't worry. Wayne will be fine. I just need to double check a few things, but he'll be out of here within the hour, I'll bet my wand."

With a note in each of their hands, Lisa, Gloria, Anthony, and Sakura were deftly herded out of the room. Keroberos flew just behind Sakura in procession.

Gloria split off, heading back to Gryffindor Tower, thoughts about how to spend the rest of her free time before the next examination and, more significantly, thoughts of how she could use the unneeded medical note floated around in her head. Keroberos in turn headed back to Ravenclaw Tower, carefully carrying the book which contained all of the Sakura Cards in it. The others belatedly headed back towards the Charms final exam. Sakura clutched at the note Madam Pomfrey had given her as if it was the most important thing in the world. The creases on the other students' notes suggested they were doing the same thing.

After traversing the seemingly endless corridors and a particularly devious configuration of the moving stairwell, the three Ravenclaw students made their way to the outside of Professor Flitwick's classroom. They got there just as the rest of the students were filing out. It was a very surreal experience for Sakura. It felt more like weeks since she had run off from the others at the start of the test, rather than the short time it had actually been.

"Hey Anthony, what was all that about, you and everybody running off," Terry asked Anthony.

"There was a..." Anthony started to explain before Professor Flitwick appeared from the door and interrupted him.

"Ahem. I assume you three have a good reason for missing your exams?" Professor Flitwick asked. His stern demeanor more than made up for his diminutive stature. Being stared down by somebody shorter than her was a very strange phenomenon to Sakura.

"I got hurt and had to go see Madam Pomfrey for treatment," Sakura said, holding her note in front of her like some kind of cross between an aegis and a government petition.

"Hurt? How did Sakura get hurt?" Paul asked.

"Yes, yes, that will be all children. Go back to your dorms," Professor Flitwick instructed the other Ravenclaw students. He then turned to Sakura, Lisa, and Anthony, and said, "I'll see you three in the classroom."

Professor Flitwick followed the three students into the classroom. Once there, he said to Sakura, "Now, let me see that note."

Sakura handed over the note that Madam Pomfrey gave her, hoping it would be enough to stave off the Head of the Ravenclaw House's judgment against her.

Professor Flitwick's experienced eye examined the sheet, making sure it hadn't been forged and that everything looked to be in order. The writing seemed authentic enough, although more than one student had tried faking a medical note. It was usually a Gryffindor student, although occasionally a Slytherin or Ravenclaw would conveniently miss an examination as well. He tapped the sheet with his wand and said, "Ostendo Verum."

Whatever the sheet did or didn't do seemed to satisfy Professor Flitwick. He then turned to Lisa and Anthony, asking, "What about you two? Were you also injured like Sakura?"

"No. We felt sick and went to see Madam Pomfrey for that," Anthony said.

"Oh really?" Professor Flitwick asked.

Anthony handed over his note, which Professor Flitwick took and inspected in much the same way he had inspected Sakura's earlier. He then asked Lisa, "Stomach problems? Both of you?"

"Maybe it was something they served at lunch?" Lisa suggested, holding out the note Madam Pomfrey had given her. Professor Flitwick took this sheet and was equally thorough in inspecting it as the previous two, despite the past two being proven authentic.

"There's nothing to be done for it then," Professor Flitwick said, his tone of voice softening. "Normally I'd ask you three to take a make-up exam tomorrow, but as you three are already here and there's still a bit more time it'd be easier to do it right now. Come up to the front here with me."

He led the three to the front of the room and climbed on top of his desk. On the desk was a large pineapple. It had several large discolored patches on it but was easily recognizable as the spiny fruit it was.

"Your test is to make this pineapple dance across the desk. I'll let you three decide in which order you want to go," Professor Flitwick said.

The three children all looked at each other. Each tried to convince the others with their eyes alone that somebody else should go first while they tried to think of what charm they had learned which could work for this test. Given everything they had just gone through, concentrating was hard to say the least.

The thought of dancing food reminded Sakura of the time she had used The Create and The Move to catch Keroberos as he tried to steal a lemon cake she had baked with Eriol. If she only could have used The Move then this test would have been easy, but she was restricted to the charms she had learned in class. Even if she weren't, Keroberos had taken the cards back with him to Ravenclaw Tower and they were far beyond her immediate reach.

"None of you seem interested in going first, so I guess I'll have to pick one of you at random then. How about..." Professor Flitwick hesitated, then said, "you Sakura."

"Hoe..." Sakura lamented at her bad luck. She drew her wand and redoubled her thinking efforts in light of the sudden new urgency.

* * *

Last Updated; December 5, 2012


	13. 13: Sakura's Sorrowful Departure

Chapter 13: Sakura's Sorrowful Departure

The Quidditch season had ended, the final examinations had been taken, the house standings had been finalized, and all that remained was the closing ceremony. A sleepy lethargy had overcome Hogwarts, its rooms and hallways filled with the silent echoes of remembered joys and sorrows. Even the spirits of the castle didn't fly around or cause undead mischief with nearly the same amount vigor they had just one month prior.

After the incident with The Song, the rest of Sakura's examinations had been completed without anything of note happening. She had had a couple of problems with her remaining exams, such as getting a few of the constellations confused with each other in the Astronomy test, but nothing so bad as to cast any doubt on her chances of actually passing. Even her Charms test had proved quite doable once she had figured out a combination of spells which could accomplish Professor Flitwick's assigned task. The only question was how well, or how poorly, she had done in each test.

As all of the formal events of school besides the closing ceremony were finished, there was a definite dearth of things to do. Even in conversation there was little to talk about. There were only really two topics remaining worth discussing: talk about the house standings, and talk about what people would be doing over the upcoming holiday. There was actually a third and fourth topic as well, although they were more the subject of gossip behind closed doors than outright proper conversations. The third was a school-wide rumor about how some Gryffindor students, including the famous Harry Potter, had embarked on some adventure on the forbidden floor in the castle; while the fourth was much more limited to Ravenclaw Tower and involved some strange escapades of an unnamed group of first year Ravenclaws students in one of the greenhouses.

At first several of the students in Ravenclaw had been talking about Sakura, Anthony, and Lisa's disappearance at the Charms final examination, but this questioning was quickly supplanted by the school-wide rumors of Harry Potter's adventure. Even after a year, anything which involved The Boy Who Lived managed to capture the imagination of everybody outside of the Gryffindor house and overshadow all but the biggest of news stories. This suited Sakura and Keroberos perfectly, who preferred for her escapade with The Song to go as unnoticed as possible.

This difference in notoriety of their adventures was only made more stark by how much larger the adventure Harry Potter and his companions had been through as compared to Sakura's own. Despite there being no official discussion about what had happened on the forbidden floor of the castle, it was an open secret that it was something big. There were contradicting rumors about what it might have been, ranging from the believably improbable rumor that Harry and the rest had found a secret treasure long hidden from the Ministry of Magic, all the way to the less probable rumor that there had been an epic confrontation in which Harry had defeated a reborn Voldomort moments before he could unleash a massive curse which would have destroyed the entire castle in a fiery cataclysm. The Slytherins were more inclined to believe the former whereas the Gryffindors were insisting the latter was the more accurate description of events. Sakura wasn't sure what she believed.

Gossip and speculation can only take a conversation so far, however, so inevitably the primary topic of conversation in the open was the house standings. They had been finalized and Slytherin was decisively in the lead. Again. It was hard to miss Professor Snape's smugly arrogant look of complacence as he traversed the halls of the castle, or the overly controlled continence of Professor McGonagall as she did the same.

The standings affected Sakura much more than she had thought they would. When she had first joined the school, the competition had seemed more quaint and silly than anything. However, living and watching the events unfold side-by-side with her fellow Ravenclaws had slowly but surely changed that, to the point that she felt almost as bad as the sixth year students about their loss. While it might not have matter in the least in the grand scheme of things, she couldn't help but picture the emblem of Ravenclaw featured prominently in the Great Hall.

The Ravenclaws promised each other that next year would be different. Next year they would take the Quidditch cup. From there they could launch their attack on winning the entire house competition. Next year Ravenclaw would stand proudly above the others.

The Quidditch comment was more of an open joke than anything. Nobody really believed they could win at Quidditch, despite the fact that Ravenclaw had thoroughly trounced Gryffindor on the last game of the season this year. That last game hadn't been a true comparison of their respective teams' skill after all, as Harry Potter had been absent. Moreover, even with that overwhelming loss Gryffindor had still managed to win the tournament. Gryffindor and Slytherin were simply too dominant in the sport.

Prospects for the next year looked bleak as well, given how the poorly the first year Ravenclaw students had flown thus far. However it was always fun to dream of a brilliant new Seeker which would lead the team to victory, and there was always the chance that one of the heretofore uninterested students would come back from the summer with a newly discovered interest and talent in the game.

However, the talk about winning the overall house tournament was much more serious. It would be hard to win without taking the Quidditch house cup, but they were only 46 points behind Slytherin this year, a difficult but not impossible amount to overcome. Never mind a non-Slytherin year hadn't happened in the living memory of any of the students in Hogwarts. Each Ravenclaw student could guilty remember at least two points in the last year they could have retained if only he or she had been a bit more obedient, and that would have been enough to have put them over the top.

Much like the gossip and rumors about Harry Potter, though, ultimately the recriminations and regrets about the house competition could only sustain a conversation for so long. Inevitably every discussion would turn to the question about what everybody had planned for the summer break. While Sakura didn't mind this topic in and of itself, it had a nasty tendency to turn into a question about what classes people would be taking next year, which was a topic Sakura absolutely hated. She hated it for a simple reason; she wasn't sure if she would be coming back to Hogwarts.

Sakura had enjoyed her time in Hogwarts. She had learned more about magic than she thought there was to know, and had become more proficient in English than students twice her age. However she didn't have any intention of leaving Japan on any long-term basis, and therefore she didn't want to spend too much time away from her home. So Sakura would often end up needing to perform verbal gymnastics to avoid committing to the coming year whenever anybody brought the subject up.

This social awkwardness would be coming to a close today, however. The time for the end-of-year feast had finally arrived. The classrooms had been proverbially mothballed and everybody had gathered in the Great Hall this one last time before the students and staff were to be all scattered to the four winds. While most would return, a year older and hopefully a year wiser, the oldest students would disappear from these hallowed halls which would make room for a new class of wide-eyed naive students.

In the air hung a tense expectation which Sakura hadn't felt since her first day at Hogwarts, when she and all of the other first year students had walked into the silence of the Great Hall at the start of the start-of-term banquet a lifetime ago. The nervous tension in the air and the grand decorations spread throughout the hall, most prominently the green and silver banners of Slytherin house, were the only things in common between the current situation and that September event, though.

Back then, when she had first come into the school, she had felt like an outsider intruding into an alien new world; now she was as much a part of the establishment as the most high-profile seventh year student. Back then everybody had looked forward with anxious anticipation for the year which was to come; now everybody was looking back at the year which had been with both joyful remembrance and longing remorse. Back then Sakura had had no idea what to expect for the upcoming ceremony; now Sakura only wondered what unexpected happenstance event would conspire to interrupt the celebratory feast and leave her hungry yet again. Back then the entire school had watched in silence as the scared first years had shuffled into the room practically clinging to each other; now the loud din of humanity waiting in eager anticipation filled every nook and cranny of the Great Hall.

Then, with shocking alacrity, the atmosphere changed to mimic the start-of-term banquet when, by unspoken signal, a silence fell across the entire student body. Harry Potter had just walked into the room.

There was a great deal of jostling and pointing.

Then one person stood up for a better view of the boy.

Then another.

Then another.

Then whole room exploded in excitement as everybody strained their necks to see the boy that everybody had heard so much about but knew so little of in the past few days.

Harry made his way to the Gryffindor table, but the loud mummer of hundreds of concurrent conversations repeating the rumors heard from a friend of a friend of a friend showed no sign of stopping until Professor Dumbledore appeared. A second silence came over the room as quickly and as completely as if Professor Dumbledore had been the living personification of The Silent himself.

He announced in his booming voice which needed no amplification, magical or otherwise, "Another year gone! And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts... Now as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

Professor Dumbledore had to pause momentarily as a spontaneous bout of cheering and stomping broke out from the Slytherin table. It was fortunate that the plates and goblets were empty, as undoubtedly food and drink would have been wasted to the floor from all of the banging around if they hadn't been.

Professor Dumbledore spoke up again, silencing the clamor and making himself heard. "Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin. However, recent events must be taken into account. Ahem, I have a few last minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes..."

A deathly silence fell over the Slytherin table and a glimmer of hope sparked inside the other students. This wasn't part of the script. Points were supposed to be finalized by now. Technically it wasn't over until the declaration at the feast, but nobody had ever heard of points being awarded on the last day.

"First - to Mr. Ronald Weasley... for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty point."

An enormous shout came from the Gryffindor table, loud and raucous enough as to make the earlier celebration of Slytherin seem merely like some polite applause at a sedate golf tournament. While the students from the other tables didn't join in directly, the chattering between the children as they exchanged shocked words at this development added to the overall noise level of the room. The unprecedented last minute score on its own was enough of an event to cause excitement, let alone the sheer number of points just given out.

"Second - to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points," Professor Dumbledore continued to say, once the sound had died down enough for him to be comfortably heard.

The Gryffindor cheering redoubled at this. In addition to the obvious, the announcements and the awarding of points had a second result as well, serving to confirm or deny many of the rumors floating around about what exactly had happened with Harry Potter and his friends. It sounded like some of the more implausible sounding rumors actually had more truth to them then it seemed on the surface.

"Third - to Mr. Harry Potter... for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points," Professor Dumbledore announced at the next opportunity.

That was enough to put Gryffindor past Ravenclaw. A couple of frowns were shared among the Ravenclaw students. The idle hope of "anybody but Slytherin" was true as far as it went, but it somehow felt much less satisfying then they would have guessed the previous day. Ravenclaw had been knocked down from second to third place, which did sting a little. More importantly, though, it somehow felt as if the spirit, if not the outright rules, of the competition was being undermined and Gryffindor was being given an undeserved victory.

These frowns didn't break out into actual vocal jeers, though. After all, if some of those rumors which had been floating around the school were true, and based on Professor Dumbledore's unprecedented point awards they likely were, Gryffindor's sudden influx of points might not be so undeserved. Moreover there would always be next year, and the thought of "anybody but Slytherin" did hold true to a large degree.

Sakura did the math in her head. By her count, the 160 points that Professor Dumbledore had just awarded Gryffindor only made them tied with Slytherin, and all the rumors she had heard of had only spoken of Harry, Hermione, and Ron. With nobody left to give points to, it seemed the competition would end in a tie. This raised the question of what that would mean.

Professor Dumbledore resolved this question once the next gap in the shouting quieted down enough to be heard. He finished by announcing, "There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom. Which means, we need a little change of decoration."

While the hollering and shouting, not to mention pointing and jeering, continued from the Gryffindor table, Professor Dumbledore clapped his hands. The green and silver banners surrounding the hall changed to the scarlet and gold of Gryffindor, and the Gryffindor lion appeared as if in triumph over the fading Slytherin serpent.

At the head of the room, Professor Snape shook the hand of Professor McGonagall. His strained and forced smile was obvious to Sakura even across the giant room. While the two clasped hands Professor Snape kept glaring at the Gryffindor table, although at who or what Sakura couldn't make out.

It took a long time for the hall to settle down enough for the feast to be served.

* * *

The Hogwarts Express arrived tomorrow. Its appearance and subsequent departure would scatter the children of Hogwarts across the country, and indeed across the world, like a summer squall scattering so much pollen to the wind. Seizing upon this single last chance when everybody could be together under one roof, some students were having a party in the middle of the night; an unofficial, unsanctioned, and very-rule-breaking party.

With their reputation for rambunctiousness and creatively bypassing rules when something important needed doing, or even just when some jolly good fun could be had, the party could have been thrown by the Gryffindor house. It wasn't.

With their reputation for having a sense of entitlement, enjoying the social high-life, and the vast resources they had on tap, the party could have been thrown by the Slytherin house. It wasn't.

With their reputation for being too clever by half and ability to plot meticulous and incredible plans, the party could have been thrown by the Ravenclaw house. It wasn't.

In fact, with their strong spirit of friendship, camaraderie, and loyalty, the Hufflepuff house was throwing the party. This annual tradition, kept a dire secret from everybody outside of the house, celebrated kinship and provided the best send-off possible to the graduating members of the house. Every student contributed what they could, and each depended on the others to keep everything hidden from all the professors and as many of the ghosts as possible. The Fat Friar helped with the latter substantially.

Some of the professors who were former Hufflepuff students may even have helped out with the arranging of supplies, although none of the students would confirm that. Certainly Professor Sprout and all the other former Hufflepuff students were conveniently busy or absent the night the party was to take place. Regardless of how it was arranged, though, the students had managed to smuggle in decorations, food, drinks, and even some alcohol. Their dormitory location near the kitchen had once again proved to be quite the unexpected boon for the house.

Despite the lack of adult supervision, though, in the history of the party nothing untoward had ever happened. No underage drinking occurred despite the easy availability of firewhisky, no inappropriate socializing occurred between curious young couples, and no strange injuries appeared the next morning as a result of short tempers or bad judgment. There was a tacit agreement that the Hufflepuff professors would give the students a wide berth, and the Hufflepuff students would in turn make sure the professors would have no cause to regret that. Loyalty went both ways and bound the house together with chains tighter than any Incarcerous spell ever could.

Everybody attending the party had some connection to Hufflepuff. This primarily meant students within that house, but it also meant that a few students from the other three houses in Hogwarts were present as well. This included Sakura, Lisa, Anthony, and Gloria. Wayne had invited all four of them, in part for his friendship with Lisa but more likely as an apology for the trouble he had caused with his theft of The Song. Gloria had wondered why she had been invited, but had chalked it up to her good luck for having gone to the hospital with Lisa and Anthony back during exams.

Sakura had ended up using The Illusion to facilitate the journey for herself and the other Ravenclaws from Ravenclaw Tower to Hufflepuff Basement. This was both because of her de facto promise to her friends to show them more of what she could do, as well as because it provided the easiest solution to the question of how to secretly sneak across the castle. After Anthony and Lisa had gotten over their amazement and surprise of not being visible despite not wearing any invisibility cloaks or using anything else similar, they made their way to the Hufflepuff common room without incident.

Despite the relatively small number of non-Hufflepuff students, they felt so unconditionally welcome by everyone that there was never even the hint of a question of feeling out of place. A friend to one Hufflepuff was a friend to all of them, and everybody at the party was a friend.

It wasn't even particularly difficult to include the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin students into the party socialization. Everybody in the whole school only had one thing on their mind.

"What do you think of the house cup results?" Sakura asked one of the older Hufflepuff students with long brown hair tied in a ponytail, probably graduating this year by the look of him.

"It was, like, crazy, yeah?" the older boy said, shaking his head. "They must have, like, done something really big to get a hundred and seventy points like that."

"What do you think it was?" Wayne asked, appearing at Sakura's side.

"I don't, like, know. I mean it feels good that I finally got to see Slytherin, like, lose one of these house cup things before I graduate, but it feels, like, strange, yeah? Like Professor Dumbledore rigged things up or something," the older boy said.

"I heard that Professor Dumbledore used to be in Gryffindor back when he was a student. Think he might have tried to skew things for that?" a Hufflepuff girl with short curly blonde hair, maybe in her fourth or fifth year, asked.

"Nah, doubt that. If that was the case then, like, why'd he let Slytherin win for the past six years running?" the older boy asked.

"I still think it looks strange. All I can say is he'd better not pull the same stunt again next year. But in the meantime, I guess we can just be happy that we finally got a non-Slytherin year," the blonde-haired girl said.

"Do you think it might be related to," Sakura said, trying to think of what rumors she had heard, "You-Know-Who?"

"That's, like, a good question, yeah? Like, that would be something big enough to be worth that many points. Harry Potter got the most points of any of them too, and, like, the only thing I knows about him is he beat You-Know-Who and he's the devil on a broom, and I didn't, like, hear of no secret Quidditch match or nothing," the older boy said.

"You know what I heard?" a younger Hufflepuff boy, maybe a second or third year student, jumped in. Not waiting for a response he went on to say, "I heard that there was this big three-headed dog who was about to eat Professor Sinistra, and that Harry Potter found them and killed the dog with a single glare, like he did to You-Know-Who as a baby."

"That doesn't make any sense," Wayne interrupted. "What about Ron and Hermione then?"

"Ha, let me tell you what really happened," a Gryffindor girl with long red hair accented with golden ribbons said. "Now you didn't hear this from me, but what really happened was that You-Know-Who actually was about to come back. He had taken over Professor Quirrel's body and was hiding there all year. They were in the middle of some ceremony when all of a sudden Harry Potter breaks in and takes him down."

The Gryffindor girl was clearly smug, basking in the reflected glow of superiority that Harry Potter cast for everybody in Gryffindor.

"What about the other three then? Ron, Hermione, and Neville?" Sakura asked.

"Ron and Hermione helped Harry get to Professor Quirrel. Neville, he, uhh, he did something brave too," the Gryffindor girl said.

"Is that what happened? I guess it does make sense. Professor Quirrel did go missing after all," Sakura said.

"Like, don't pay any attention to that, yeah? Defense of the Dark Arts professors, like, always go missing at the end of each year. Like, I haven't had the same professor for that class for two years running in all my time here," the older Hufflepuff boy said. He then leaned in and whispered to his companions, "They, like, say that that post has a jinx on it, cast by You-Know-Who himself. Scary stuff, yeah?"

"A jinx? Is it true?" Sakura asked.

"Are you going on about that jinx again?" a younger Hufflepuff girl, maybe in her second or third year, jumped in. "There is no jinx on that position. It's just an old rumor. Who could jinx a position like that?"

"You-Know-Who could," Wayne said.

"No he couldn't. No matter how strong he was he couldn't have gotten through all of Hogwarts's defenses just like that without leaving some sort of trace," the younger Hufflepuff girl said. "And if he had, they'd have gotten rid of it by now."

"But it is true that we haven't had a person stay on as the Dark Arts professor for more than a single year since forever," the Gryffindor girl said.

"Well that might be true, but it's just a coincidence," the younger girl insisted.

Sakura backed away and left the group while they continued to argue about whether or not there was a jinx on the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She was mildly interested, but more interested in finding where her friends were and what they were doing. On the way she dropped by a table on the side of the room for a quick snack. She wasn't hungry, surprisingly having not been interrupted at a celebratory feast for once, but it gave her something to do with her hands. When she went back to Japan she wouldn't have access to such foods anymore either, so didn't mind overeating just a bit this time.

Her decision to go to the snack table proved to be a fortunate one as when she walked over she saw two of the friends she was looking for sitting on the side by the drinks. Lisa and Anthony were there, Anthony looking quite disheveled and Lisa patting his shoulder.

"I'm telling you I failed Herbology for sure," Anthony said, holding his head was in his hands. "They're going to hold me back a year, and my parents will kill me."

"I am quite sure you did fine," Lisa insisted, rubbing Anthony's shoulder. "Nobody fails their classes, especially Herbology. I am sure you did fine."

"Easy for you to say. You aren't the one who thought question three was asking about a Snargaluff," Anthony said.

"Hello Anthony. Hello Lisa. What's going on?" Sakura asked.

"Nothing special. Anthony here is just panicking about a silly little mistake he made during the Herbology test," Lisa said.

"Silly little mistake? I mixed up a Devil's Snare with a Snargaluff. If I did that in real life I could have been killed," Anthony said. "Professor Sprout is going to fail me for sure."

"I'm sure you did fine. It was only one question," Sakura agreed with Lisa. "I'm sure Professor Sprout won't fail you for just one question, especially for a little mistake like that."

"Easy for you to say. You aren't the one who said to use a heavy pair of gloves. She's going to fail me, and my family's going to kill me for sure," Anthony repeated.

"Buck up mate. Professor Sprout's the best. She'd never fail a student for anything," an older Hufflepuff boy picking up a Butterbeer said. "Why I remember one time Andy threw a Fire Seed Bush seed as a joke and set half the greenhouse on fire. He was stuck in the hospital wing for a week, but all Professor Sprout does is make him write an essay on plant handling safety. No detention, no points off, no nothing."

"Maybe for you Hufflepuffs," Anthony said.

"No, not just for Hufflepuffs, for everyone. She's not like Professor Snape. She treats everybody nice," the older boy said.

"She'll kick me out for sure," Anthony said.

"Well, panic if you want, mate, but I'm going to go back to having fun. Good luck with your test results," the boy said then wandered off.

"Don't worry, Anthony. What that boy said is right. Professor Sprout has been really nice the whole year. I'm sure you won't fail just because of one question," Sakura tried to reassure Anthony.

"That's easy for you to say. You always do great in Herbology," Anthony replied.

"Not really. I'm only average in that class," Sakura said.

"Humph," was Anthony's unintelligible reply.

"Cheer up. I'm sure things will be great," Sakura said, then added, "Come on, you need to help me find Gloria. I have some news to tell all of you, but we need to find her first.

"I should have just written 'light a fire.'" Anthony said, ignoring Sakura.

"Let us not worry about him. I doubt anything we say could help," Lisa said, and then got to her feet. "I thought I saw Gloria when we came in. She was talking to one of the Hufflepuff Quidditch players I think. I swear, that girl and Quidditch. Actually no, I take that back. I swear, all of Gryffindor house and Quidditch. I wonder if that is one of the things the Sorting Hat sorts on."

Lisa led Sakura to where she had last seen Gloria. While Gloria and Cedric had since moved from that location, they were still in easy eyesight. They had taken a position near a wall and were leaning towards each other.

"... got me too. Herbert had just blocked the Quaffle but then suddenly pointed behind me, so I turn around and see this Bludger flying straight at me. I barely had time to get out of the way. I got lucky," Cedric was saying as the pair approached.

"Still, I never saw anybody drop into a Sloth-Grip-Roll so fast," Gloria said. "I was really impressed."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I didn't get clobbered, but I was so upset. I was sure I had seen the Snitch just before I dropped below the broom, but by the time I got back up it was gone," Cedric said.

"Oh, is that why you went flying in circles in front of the Slytherin section back then?" Gloria asked.

"Yes. I'm surprised you remember. That was a game against Slytherin, not Gryffindor. Only about half of the Hufflepuff students even bother to attend our Quidditch games, and most of them don't remember anything after it's over," Cedric said.

"Oh, I watch every game," Gloria said.

"I wonder what Oliver would say if he knew you watched all the games and not just the Gryffindor ones," Lisa interrupted.

"He'd just say it was good intelligence gathering and ask if I could find some way to bring Fred and George along with me. I manage to get a seat next to him most matches, you know," Gloria answered. "Oh, I should introduce you. This is Cedric, the Hufflepuff Seeker. These are Sakura and Lisa, two friends of mine."

"Nice to meet you," the three said to each other in chorus.

"Oi, Cedric, there you are," an older Hufflepuff boy called out from across the room, running towards them. "Got a second? I'm trying to convince Heidi to try out for Quidditch next year, but I can't find our fearless captain anywhere."

"Heidi? As in Heidi Macavoy?" Cedric asked in an excited tone. "I've seen her on a broom and she's definitely good enough. Is she interested?"

"A bit, but she's still not sure. Come on, she's over here," the boy said, pulling Cedric by the hand.

"Oops. A Quidditch player's work is never done. Well, nice meeting you all," Cedric said over his shoulder as he was being led away.

As Cedric disappeared, Lisa turned to Gloria and said, "That was quite the surprise. I thought for sure we would have to rescue Cedric from your non-stop Quidditch talk."

"Are you kidding? Cedric's great. He's almost as Quidditch crazy as Oliver is," Gloria said. "Still good timing you're showing up right when he had to go. How are you enjoying the party?"

"Never mind the party, what is this big news that you wanted to tell us?" Lisa asked.

"Oh, news? What news?" Gloria asked, her voice perking up at the suggestion.

"I wanted to come find you and to tell you goodbye," Sakura said.

"Goodbye? That's news? You didn't need to tell me if you were leaving the party," Gloria said.

"No, not the party. Goodbye, goodbye. For the year," Sakura said.

"What? Why now? We still have the trip on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow. Are you planning on sitting with somebody else or something?" Lisa asked.

"No. The news is that I'm going to be taking the floo network with Professor Mizuki again," Sakura said.

"What? Again? I know you got permission or something for the holidays, but I didn't think they'd let you leave school on the floo network. What about all of your luggage?" Gloria asked.

"She said it wouldn't be a problem to bring it with me," Sakura said.

"We shall miss you. If you want to come and visit during the summer let me know. We have plenty of space in our house and I am quite sure my parents would just adore seeing you," Lisa said.

"Me too. You can also help me teach my brother a lesson with you-know-what too," Gloria said with a hint of mischief in her voice.

"If you're ever in Japan be sure to come and visit too. Our house is a bit small but I'm sure we can figure something out," Sakura said. "I can introduce you to all of my friends and family and show you around Tokyo too."

"Actually all this talk about goodbyes makes me wonder what you both will be doing for the summer," Lisa said.

"Nothing but stay around at home. Our family's big trip is in the winter, so the summer is really boring," Gloria said.

"I don't know. I'll probably catch up with all my friends in Japan. I might try and practice my magic a bit too," Sakura said.

"Wait, did you not know? You are not allowed to use magic outside of school. Not until we graduate," Lisa said with a worried tone of voice.

"Oh, relax Lisa. I'm sure the Ministry of Magic has better things to do than chase down a young witch all the way around the world for violating the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery. Actually, I wonder if they can even detect if you use magic in Japan," Gloria said, a thoughtful look appearing on her face.

"We'll see. It will be hard, though. Charms and transfigurations will be easy enough, but I'm not sure about getting supplies for things like potions," Sakura said.

"Be sure to let us know all about it next year," Lisa said.

"Actually," Sakura started saying, hesitated, and then blurted out. "I'm actually not sure if I'll be back next year."

"What?" Gloria exclaimed.

"Did you say that you may not return next year? Why would you not?" Lisa asked, equally shocked.

"I'm not sure. I need to talk it over with my family," Sakura said.

"Talk it over? What's there to talk over? Didn't you have fun here?" Gloria asked.

"And there is so much more to learn too. I am quite sure you will not learn nearly as much in any school in Japan," Lisa added right after Gloria.

"It's not that easy," Sakura said, and then sighed. "It's hard to be away from home for so long. I want some rice."

"Oh. If it's just the food we can talk to the elves. They might be able to make something special for you or something," Gloria said.

"It's not just the food. I miss my family. And Tomoyo. And Syaoran. And Yukito. I even miss my brother. I miss cheerleading, and music, and everything," Sakura said. "And there's the question of what I'm learning. I don't want to fall too far behind in my studies in Japan. I don't think the people in Japan have even heard of Hogwarts, and I'm not even sure how much magic I'll use when I grow up."

"You simply must come back. We shall all miss you if you do not," Lisa said.

"Don't worry, I'll stay in touch even if I don't come back. I'll write, although now that I think about it I need to get your addresses," Sakura said.

"Address? Why do you need an address? I always just give my letters to Cannon and tell him who I want them delivered to," Lisa said.

"I use my owl too," Gloria said, and then admitted, "I don't even know my address."

"Me either," Lisa admitted as well.

"Hoe?" Sakura said. The idea of somebody not knowing where they lived struck her as incredibly odd. "I guess I can ask Professor Mizuki. She can probably figure something out."

The group lapsed into a thoughtful silence. Eventually Lisa interrupted it by saying, "And now we are all moping about just like Anthony. This is a party and we should be celebrating, especially if this will be the last time Sakura will be with us."

With that, Lisa took Sakura and Gloria by the hand and led them back to the snack table.

* * *

"See? I told you that you were worrying too much," Lisa said.

It was a bittersweet time. Sakura, Lisa, and Anthony were leaving Ravenclaw Tower for the last time before heading home. Sakura had checked her room over three times to make sure she hadn't left anything behind, paying particular attention to make sure she hadn't somehow missed one of her cards. The wardrobes and chests were empty, and the desks and beds were cleared. The only indication that the dorms hadn't been empty for the past 10 months was the packed suitcases on the ground and the echoes of memories forever reverberating in the room. In a few hours, only the echoes would remain.

"I was really worried, okay?" Anthony defended himself.

The results of the tests had finally been released and were waiting for all of the students first thing in the morning; a late morning for some of them as it turned out. Sakura had found the results to be rather anti-climactic. She had easily passed all of her tests, even the History of Magic test despite it being essentially a long paper which she had had to write in English. Lisa likewise found the announcements to be very unsurprising, passing all of her tests with ease as well.

Anthony, on the other hand, was a different matter. He still couldn't believe the passing results he had received despite double checking them. He even had Lisa read through them to make sure that he hadn't misread something.

"Everybody ready to go?" Sakura asked.

"I think so," Lisa said.

"I completely muddled up Devil's Snare with Snargaluff. I thought Professor Sprout was going to fail me or something," Anthony continued, ignoring the two.

"Are you still on about that? You've been talking about that test for over half an hour already, not to mention yesterday. You passed. What more do you want?" Keroberos asked.

"I told you Professor Sprout wouldn't fail you," Sakura agreed while she opened the door.

"I do not think Professor Sprout would every fail anybody. She is not like Professor Snape or Professor McGonagall or anything," Lisa agreed.

The open doorway revealed Professor Dumbledore, standing not five feet away from the entrance.

"Professor Dumbledore! What are you doing here?" Lisa squeaked out as much as said.

"I was just on my way to see Sakura here," Professor Dumbledore said, surprisingly accenting her name correctly unlike most of the professors and students Sakura had met in Hogwarts. "To my good fortune, not only did I find her but I find Anthony and yourself here as well. I was hoping to speak to you both too."

"You were looking for me?" Sakura asked.

"It's quite the odd thing. Madam Pomfrey tells me we had something of a banshee problem. Coincidentally it seems like you three not only miss your Charms final exam but bring Mr. Wayne Hopkins, its one victim, to the hospital wing," Professor Dumbledore said, speaking as calmly as if he had been commenting on the weather. "The strange thing is, I spoke with Argus Filch as well as all of the resident ghosts, and they all assure me there was no trace of any unusual spirits in the castle, let alone one as obvious as a mad banshee."

Professor Dumbledore paused here to make sure all four of them were following what he was saying. After few moments of silence he continued, "Despite that, when we investigated Greenhouse Three we see the remains of a fearsome battle, and undoubtedly something happened to Mr. Hopkins to make him lose his hearing as well. If I had to guess, I would wager there is a bit more to the story than you've let on."

"Sorry. Things kind of happened and then got out of hand," Sakura said, facing the non-judgmental gaze Professor Dumbledore had fixed on the three students.

"No need to apologize. Actually we owe you a debt of gratitude. It may have been overshadowed by..." Professor Dumbledore hesitated, "other events, but taking care of mad banshees is something usually best left to specialists. It's very impressive of you three to have handled it. It's a shame we lost our supply of mandrake and half of our Venomous Tentacula plants, but Professor Sprout should be able to grow some more of both in the coming year without too much difficulty."

Sakura visibly relaxed, having concluded that Professor Dumbledore wasn't there to punish them. If Professor Dumbledore noticed, he gave no indication of it.

"Still, it's very strange. I checked and all of our wards keeping dangerous spirits away, and they were all very much intact. It's also a very odd place for a banshee to go, Greenhouse Three I mean. So much life and vitality there. Banshees, even mad ones, usually prefer places of solitude and death," Professor Dumbledore mused out loud.

Sakura fidgeted under Professor Dumbledore's steady glance and looked down, but said no more. Anthony and Lisa kept their silence as well, as did Keroberos.

Mercifully, Professor Dumbledore only held her fixed in his gaze for a couple of seconds before saying, "Well, I suppose it may be best to leave it at that. Madam Pomfrey is satisfied and everything is resolved. I trust everything is in fact resolved?"

"Yes," Sakura said, nodding her head at the same time.

"Good!" Professor Dumbledore said. "That should help my life tremendously. I have enough things which demand my attention as it is, and I doubt the Ministry of Magic will bother investigating an incursion by a mad banshee which has already been dealt with, especially in light of recent events."

"Recent events? You mean that thing with Gryffindor you were talking about at the end-of-term feast?" Anthony asked. "What happened there anyway?"

"Yeah, what happened?" Keroberos chimed in.

"Why did you award all those points to Harry Potter and everybody else?" Lisa pressed further.

"Some people were saying that You-Know-Who came back and Harry Potter beat him. Is that true?" Sakura added.

"Now it wouldn't do for me to go around telling Harry's secrets any more than it would do for me to go around telling yours, or anybody else's secrets in this school," Professor Dumbledore said.

"I supposed not," Sakura said.

"Suffice it to say, this has been a busy year. A very busy year, it would seem. I guess things really have changed a lot since how they used to be. I wonder what Professor Reed would say about that," Professor Dumbledore said, as much to himself as anybody present in the room.

"Professor Reed? Who is that?" Lisa asked, caught completely off-guard by the unrelated tangent Professor Dumbledore's musings had taken.

"Professor Clow Reed. He was a professor here when I was a student," Professor Dumbledore said. "It's strange. I haven't thought about him for a long time, but when I see Sakura and Keroberos here, they remind me of him somehow."

"You knew Clow Reed?" Sakura asked. "What was he like?"

"He was a bit of an odd one to be perfectly honest. The other professors would whisper behind his back, about how his unorthodox methods and lax discipline were hurting the academic standing of this institution," Professor Dumbledore said. He shook his head and chuckled at some sights and sounds which only he could see and hear before abruptly frowning. He concluded by saying, "I think he left Hogwarts after a while."

"That's good. It sounds like he wasn't a very good professor," Anthony said, secretly thinking of a few professors he would have leave Hogwarts if he could.

"On the contrary, he was one of the best professors in my opinion. Certainly the most fun one," Professor Dumbledore said. "I wonder if he ever did manage to achieve his dream of mixing Eastern and Western magic. If he did, I'm sure he would have made an artifact powerful enough to move the stars themselves. Of course anybody who had such an artifact would undoubtedly keep it a secret. Wizards and witches have quibbled and killed each other over much less in the past. "

Sakura caught the meaningful glance he directed at her, and she could feel his stare pierce her robe to see the cards she kept out of sight. He knew! She didn't know how he knew or what he would do with that knowledge, but she knew he knew.

"Eastern magic? What is that? I thought the East was really undeveloped and had they very little magic there," Lisa said.

"That's a very common misconception, but that's a discussion for another time. I must let you go now, otherwise you might miss the train. There will be plenty of time to talk about it next term. I trust you will all be back next year?" Professor Dumbledore said as much as asked.

"Yes," both Lisa and Anthony answered in chorus.

"Ehh," Sakura hesitatingly said.

"'Ehh?' What 'ehh'? You are going to be back next year, right?" Anthony asked, turning towards Sakura.

"I'm not sure," Sakura said.

"Oops. I seem to be guilty of accidentally bumphing. I better be off before some referee flags me for it. I still need to find Mr. Hopkins before he leaves for the Hogwarts Express, too," Professor Dumbledore said.

As Professor Dumbledore turned to leave, Lisa hesitantly asked, "Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yes, Lisa?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"You will not tell them what I said, right? Professor Sprout and Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, I mean," Lisa said.

"Tell them? Tell them you said what?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"That I said... Umm..." Lisa said.

"I most certainly won't tell them you said 'umm' my dear, but don't worry. Like I said before, we all have our secrets and it's not my place to tell anybody else's," Professor Dumbledore said, then gave a mischievous smile, "And even if I did I doubt that even Professor Snape would fail you for it."

Lisa blushed in embarrassment while Professor Dumbledore turned and walked away with a jolly laugh. As he walked, he said, "It looks like we have a great group of students this year. I just hope next year's are even half as interesting."

"Now what do you mean you're not sure you're going to be back next year?" Anthony asked Sakura once Professor Dumbledore was out of sight.

"I mean I haven't decided yet. There's a lot to think about and I need to talk about it with my family," Sakura said.

"You just have to come back. We'll all miss you if you don't," Anthony said.

"See? I told you so," Lisa said.

"You mean you knew she was going to leave?" Anthony asked Lisa.

"She told me and Gloria yesterday at the party," Lisa said.

"You told them, but you didn't tell me?" Anthony asked.

"I tried to, but you were busy being worried on the side of the room," Sakura said.

"Gee, thanks," Anthony said.

"Do not worry. I am quite sure Sakura will be back next year," Lisa said. "I am more interested in hearing about what you heard about Harry Potter, and who was that Professor Clow Reed person Professor Dumbledore was talking about."

"I heard it last night at the party," Sakura said. "Somebody was telling us that You-Know-Who had taken control of Professor Quirrel and he performing some ceremony when Harry Potter breaks in and stops them."

"I suppose the whole school's heard that rumor by now," Kaho said, suddenly appearing in the doorway.

"Is it true, Professor Mizuki?" Lisa asked Kaho.

"Even if it were true I wouldn't be allowed to tell you," Kaho said. "It would cause a panic in the whole magical community if that rumor was true and word got out."

"Professor Mizuki, you're here. You tell Sakura that she just has to come back to Hogwarts next year," Anthony said, still thinking about his friend's possible disappearance.

"I'm sure we would all love for her to return, but that is her decision to make. Her family will probably want to discuss things with her as well," Kaho said. "Regardless, she will always have a place here if she wants it."

"At least we'll still have the trip on the Hogwarts Express to convince you to come back," Anthony said.

"Didn't you hear? We're not taking the Hogwarts Express back. We'll be traveling by the floo network," Keroberos corrected him.

"That's why I'm here actually. I'm just checking to see if they're ready to go," Kaho said.

"What? Again?" Anthony asked, jealous. "I was told that none of the children were allowed to use the floo network."

"No. It's just children aren't allowed to travel on their own on the floo network, and we can't have all the parents coming here to pick up their children. It would be such a mess on the last day if we did," Kaho explained. "Luckily for Sakura here we are both going to the same place, so I can bring her with me, just like we did last winter."

"Lucky. The floo network is so much faster," Anthony said.

"You would have known that too if you had not been moping about all during the party last night," Lisa said.

"Party? Actually no, don't tell me. It's probably better if I didn't know," Kaho said.

"So this is goodbye then, I guess," Anthony said.

"Yes," Sakura said. Tears were close to coming from her eyes, but she held them back.

"Say goodbye to Gloria and Wayne for me too," Sakura said.

"We will," Lisa answered. "And be sure to write. All summer."

"That reminds me, Professor Mizuki, I don't know Lisa or Gloria or anybody else's address. If I send you some letters can you forward them for them?" Sakura asked.

"Can we send you our letters too?" Lisa asked.

"I can do that, at least until you figure out a better way to communicate," Kaho said, then turning to the other two students she added, "But it sounds like you two need to take my Muggle Studies course soon. Their telephone and mail systems really are better in many ways than just relying on owls and the floo network all the time."

"Okay, Professor Mizuki," Lisa and Anthony said in chorus.

"So do you have everything then?" Kaho asked Sakura, picking up one of her suitcases for her.

Sakura counted her containers then nodded, saying, "Yes, that's everything."

"Let's go to the fireplace then. I'm sure Eriol has a warm meal waiting for us," Kaho said.

"Goodbye, Anthony, Lisa," Sakura said. "The past year was a lot of fun. Be sure to send me your addresses once you figure them out. I'll write to you all the time."

"Okay, I promise," Anthony said.

"Even if I need to figure out the whole muggle mail system I will," Lisa agreed.

They would even keep their promises too.

* * *

Author's Note:

This story began longer ago than I would honestly like to admit. I had watched a Harry Potter movie, read some of the books, and thought, "Cardcaptor Sakura would match together very well with the Harry Potter universe." At least I had thought it would, but lots of searching back then didn't reveal any crossovers which were quite what I was expecting. So, after much thought, I decided I'd write for myself what I thought I would be looking for in a Cardcaptor Sakura-Harry Potter crossover.

Over the years I've dropped and picked up "Sakura and the Scottish School of Magic" numerous times. I've watched as J. K. Rowling expanded the Harry Potter universe (for the most part not ruining anything I'd written in doing so), wrote and rewrote sections and major plot points numerous times (intentionally and with much pain deleting countless of pages worth of content through the years, and once unintentionally losing something like two to three chapters due to a computer issue), and overall spent far more time on this project than I had expected when I had first started it.

For that matter, in some sense, the counter of time spent on this story hasn't ended. You probably noticed the "Last Updated" dates at the end of each chapter. As you can see, I'm still occasionally making minor corrections to the story as time goes by. These are primarily typo fixes, as I refuse to get caught into the classic trap of wanting to get caught in the trap some authors do of starting a full-scale rewrite of things (which they never seem to finish). Also making major changes to the plot by this point doesn't seem fair to those who have already read this story to completion. What this does mean, though, is if you see anything which should be tweaked or fixed, please let me know. For that matter, if you have any general thoughts or feedback, such as having liked the story or having ideas of ways to improve things, please let me know. I'd love to hear it.

As for "what I thought I would be looking for in a Cardcaptor Sakura-Harry Potter" crossover, for those curious, my ground rules for this story before I had outlined the plot or even outlined the characters were as follows (modestly re-written for understandability):

0) Have fun with it.

1) This is Sakura in the Harry Potter universe. It must not interfere with the main Harry Potter storyline. Write it such that even if this story happened, the original J.K. Rowling's books could and would still be written as they were written.

1a) This means Sakura and other characters should have only limited contact with Harry Potter and other high-profile Harry Potter canon characters, and their contact should be muted at that. For example, Harry Potter falling in love with a random girl would have been noted in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". Maybe if Harry were impressed with a random girl for a few days it would be minor enough that J.K. Rowling's wouldn't have written about it, but even this is iffy at best.

1b) Sakura will not influence major plot points in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". This story will explore alternative plots of what is happening in Hogwarts. Sakura most notably does not save the day for Harry Potter.

1c) There will need to be some limitation to the Clow Cards such that they don't become major enough to intrude on the original story of Harry Potter.

1d) The majority of action in this story will happen in different classes and between-classes scenes than "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".

1e) Stay away from Quiddich. Harry would have heard of another prodigy.

2) No Mary Sues, brothers thereof, or God Mode Sues. A character with an ordinary life, a character with legitimate problems, social misfits, and socialites are all fine. Make sure characters are 3-dimensional, though, and fully formed. Child/teen angst-filled overly dramatic melodrama is fine, so long as the author/reader (with more perspective) realize it is the character misinterpreting the situation. Don't try to create false sympathy for a character, and none of the characters should be know-it-alls.

3) Have a plot. Cardcaptor Sakura in Harry Potter's universe is *not* enough

3a) An outline is a good thing.

4) Try to integrate Harry Potter items into this story, but don't feel obligated to do so. If a clever pun doesn't spring to mind, move on.

5) Possibly include cameos of other anime/fiction/etc, but don't make this a mega-crossover. Those *never* work.

Maybe I succeeded. Maybe I didn't. I'd like to think if I stumbled across this story that I would enjoy reading it, but author's bias means I can't honestly judge whether or not that is true. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

You probably noticed the waffling at the last chapter about whether or not Sakura will be back next year. Part of the reason it's framed that way is that I'm not sure whether or not I'll write a sequel to this story. I do have an outline for 1992-1993, but finding the time and the will to actually turn that outline into prose is another question entirely.

To be honest I really want to make this a trilogy, as in the third year the worry about the Prisoner of Azkaban and the associated happenings around the castle would really let Sakura and everybody else do a lot of interesting things without breaking the Harry Potter canon as such. However that requires getting past 1992-1993, and, possibly more importantly, having enough interesting content left to write for 1993-1994.

Regardless, if as sequel is written, don't expect it any time in the near future. Chances are if it ever is released it will be released so far in the future that you will have long forgotten about this story by then. If a sequel does come out, though, and you do notice, and you do remember, I hope you will enjoy reading what further adventures Sakura and everybody else will next embark on.

Otherwise, whatever you, the reader, think happened after Sakura left Ravenclaw Tower with Kaho and Keroberos, I'm sure you are absolutely right.

* * *

Postscript:

Alternatively, if you are interested in a sequel, you can now just go and read it. Set concurrent to the events of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "Sakura and the Whirlwind of Discovery" depicts the events of Sakura's return to Hogwarts Castle for a second year at the magical school.

In writing the sequel, I had to strongly fight against the "George Lucas Temptation" for "Sakura and the Scottish School of Magic." There are numerous things I wanted to edit and alter throughout this story. My writing has noticeably changed (and hopefully improved) since I wrote it years ago. There are also several characterizations and plot points of greater or lesser importance which I wanted to "fix" as well. However, for the sake of artistic integrity and historical accuracy, I resisted "improving" things. The temptation was certainly there, though, and I had to constantly fight against it.

One other thing as well; please be sure to let me know of any ways to improve this story. I really mean it. As an egregious example, I went for over a year with Professor McGonagall's name spelled incorrectly throughout this story. Nobody ever bothered to tell me. If you do notice anything, be it typos or mis-characterizations or even plotholes, or if you just have general comments or praise, please let me know. I love hearing from readers.

With all of that being said, years after having written it I still hope you enjoyed reading "Sakura and the Scottish School of Magic." I equally hope you decide to take a look at and subsequently enjoy reading "Sakura and the Whirlwind of Discovery."

* * *

Last Updated: May 1, 2013


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